FATE  Sf 


BRAND 


FLOREKCE 
FINCH 
KELLY 


THE  FATE 

OF 

FELIX  BRAND 

BY 

FLORENCE 

FINCH 

KELLY 


MILDRED  ANNISTER  MADE  APPREHENSIVE  INQUIRY  ABOUT  HIM. 


THE   FATE   OF 
FELIX   BRAND 


BY 
FLORENCE  FINCH  KELLY 

AUTHOR  OF  "WITH  HOOPS  OF  STEEL."  "THE  DELAFIELD  AFFAIR,"  "RHODA 

OF   THE  UNDERGROUND,"   "EMERSON'S  WIFE, 

AND  OTHER  WESTERN  STORIES,"  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 
EDWIN  JOHN  PRITTIE 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  Co. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.      FELIX    BRAND    HAS    A    MYSTE- 
RIOUS  EXPERIENCE        ...          9 

II.  "LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES  OUT 

OF  AN  OTTER" 15 

III.  THE    MASK    OF    HIS    COUN- 

TENANCE     27 

IV.  BILLIKINS   IS   FRIGHTENED        .       40 

V.    MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON     .     62 

VI.     WHO    IS   HUGH    GORDON?       .     .       82 
VII.      FELIX    BRAND    READS    A    LET- 
TER      96 

VIII.     DAYS   OF    STRESS         113 

IX.  BATTLING  WITH  THE  INVISIBLE  128 
X.  HUGH     GORDON    WINS    HENRI- 
ETTA^   CONFIDENCE      .     .     .  140 
XI.  PENELOPE   HAS    A   VISITOR        .  158 
XII.  DR.    ANNISTER   HAS   DOUBTS     .  179 

XIII.  MILDRED    IS    MILITANT       ...  190 

XIV.  "THERE  is  NOT  ROOM  FOR  us 

BOTH" 199 

(5) 


2136S89 


6  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XV.     FELIX  BRAND  HAS  A  BAD  QUAR- 
TER  OF   AN   HOUR      ....    215 
XVI.      MRS.    FENLOW   IS   ANGRY      .     .    230 
XVII.      "  WHICH     SHOULD     HAVE     THE 

GIFT   OF   LIFE?" 249 

XVIII.     ISABELLA     TAKES     ONE     MORE 

RIDE 272 

XIX.    "AND   YOU   COULD   DO   THIS, 

FELIX  BRAND!" 285 

XX.    "SAVE  ME,  DR.  ANNISTER!"  .   295 

XXI.     HUGH       GORDON       TELLS       HIS 

STORY 317 

XXII.      "A  MOST  INTERESTING  CASE!"    335 
XXIII.     WHITHER?  341 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


MILDRED    ANNISTER     MADE     APPREHEN- 
SIVE    INQUIRY      CONCERNING     HIM 

Frontispiece 

PAGE 

"  HARRY,  DEAR,  HAVE  YOU  HEARD  FROM 

HIM?" 84 

HE  SANK  FACE  DOWNWARD  ON  THE  BED  139 
"MILDRED!"    HIS   WHITE    LIPS    WHIS- 
PERED, THEN  STIFFENED  AND  WERE 
STILL  .    340 


(7) 


THE  FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 


CHAPTER  I 

FELIX  BRAND  HAS  A  MYSTERIOUS 
EXPERIENCE 

FELIX  BRAND  awoke  with  a  start 
and  looked  about  him  with  a  puzzled 
stare.  And  yet  there  was  nothing 
unfamiliar  in  what  met  his  gaze.  The  bed 
wherein  he  lay  and  its  luxurious  appoint- 
ments were  of  his  own  recent  buying.  He 
had  himself  designed  the  decorations  of  the 
room  and  selected  its  furnishings.  As  his 
eyes  leaped  from  one  object  to  another  his 
bewildered  glance  seemed  to  slide  unnot- 
ingly  over  the  furniture,  and  the  draperies, 
walls  and  pictures,  indicative  of  a  fastid- 
ious taste,  that  made  up  the  interior  of 
his  bedroom. 

But  it  was  no  more  than  a  few  seconds 
until   his   consciousness   came   again   into 

(9) 


10       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

accord  with  his  surroundings.  His  look 
of  perplexity  quickly  changed  into  one  of 
satisfaction  and  amusement,  and  he  ex- 
claimed aloud: 

"  Good  Lord,  how  vivid  that  was !  Never 
before  has  it  been  so  strong!"  He  rubbed 
his  eyes,  slapped  his  arms  and  moved  about 
in  the  bed  as  if  to  be  assured  of  his  bodily 
intactness  and  smiled  again  as  he  thought: 

"No,  I'm  here,  all  right,  and  I'm  I,  as 
usual!  But  it  seems  as  if  I'd  only  have 
to  close  my  eyes  to  swing  back  into  it 
again!" 

His  eyelids  dropped  as  if  in  response  to 
his  thought,  but  quickly  opened  again,  with 
a  little  frown,  as  he  murmured,  "No,  I 
guess  not.  This  is  better! " 

He  rested  his  head  upon  his  locked  hands 
and  stretched  himself  full  length  upon  his 
back,  as  his  eyes  roved  about  the  beautiful 
interior.  They  dwelt  caressingly  upon  its 
details  with  the  pride  and  pleasure  of  the 
creator  and  the  satisfaction  of  the  owner 
for  whom  possession  has  yet  the  bloom  of 
newness. 

It  was  a  handsome  face,  framed  in  dark, 
waving  hair,  that  thus  lay  back  against  the 


A  MYSTERIOUS  EXPERIENCE  11 

whiteness  of  the  pillow;  dark  skinned, 
smooth  shaven,  squarish  in  its  general  out- 
line, with  regular,  pleasing  features;  a  mobile 
face,  whose  whole  seeming  would  depend  upon 
the  expression  by  which  it  should  be  lighted. 
Just  now  it  looked  sensitive,  amiable,  sat- 
isfied, and,  at  the  first  glance,  one  would 
be  sure  that  it  bespoke  a  mind  and  soul  of 
fine  fibre.  But  if  one  looked  a  second  time 
and  more  searchingly  one  would  perceive 
some  clouding  and  coarsening  of  that  refine- 
ment, signs  not  yet  marked  enough  to  tell 
their  story  openly  and  not  likely  to  be  noted 
by  the  ordinary  observer,  but  able  to  make 
the  keener  student  of  the  human  coun- 
tenance doubt  his  first  impressions. 

"It's  queer  how  much  more  vivid  and 
real  those  dreams  are  nowadays — every 
time  one  comes  it's  stronger  than  ever  it 
was  before,"  Felix  Brand's  thought  was 
running  as  he  made  ready  for  the  day. 
The  illusion  that  had  possessed  him  as  he 
awoke  surged  through  him  again  and  again 
with  such  force  that  it  seemed  almost 
strong  enough  to  sweep  his  consciousness 
out  of  his  actual  surroundings.  Razor 
in  hand,  ready  to  begin  the  task  of  shaving, 


12       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

a  fresh  onset,  still  more  insistent,  went 
whirling  through  his  brain  and  sent  a 
sudden  numb  sensation  down  his  arm. 
He  shook  himself  irritatedly. 

"Confound  it!"  he  muttered.  "Can't 
I  keep  awake  this  morning?  But  I'm  not 
sleepy — I'm  as  wide  awake  as  ever  I  was! 
It's  queer!" 

He  frowned  at  his  reflection  in  the  mirror, 
then  suddenly  his  countenance  glowed  with 
interest.  "I  wonder  if  I  could — I  believe 
I'll  try!"  he  exclaimed  aloud.  "Jove! 
What  an  experience  it  would  be!  It's 
worth  trying!" 

He  turned  to  lay  the  razor  down  and  felt 
his  eyes  fasten  themselves  in  a  devouring 
stare  upon  its  bright  blade.  An  instant, 
and  he  was  startled  by  the  sound  of  a  strange 
voice  which  he  caught  just  as  it  was  dying 
out  of  his  ears,  a  strong,  vigorous  voice, 
speaking  in  tones  of  authority. 

"Who's  that?"  he  cried  out,  glancing 
about  the  room  in  surprise.  What  he  had 
heard  had  sounded  like  a  name  and  his 
thought  snatched  at  it  as  it  faded  quickly 
away  from  him.  "Hugh  Gordon!"  he 
repeated  softly,  and  said  it  over  to  himself 


A  MYSTERIOUS  EXPERIENCE  13 

as  he  gazed  dazedly  about  the  room.  Well 
might  he  turn  the  name  over  and  over 
in  his  mind  and  wonder  about  it,  for  it 
was  destined  to  become  to  him  the  most 
hateful  thing  in  the  world. 

"Nonsense!  What's  the  matter  with 
me  this  morning?"  and  he  shrugged  impa- 
tiently. "I  don't  know  anybody  named 
'Hugh  Gordon'  and  there's  nobody  in  here 
anyway.  The  sound  must  have  come  from 
the  hall,  or,  maybe,  from  the  street." 

His  eyes  fell  upon  the  clock  and  he  started 
with  surprise.  "Why,  it  can't  be  that  late! 
Only  a  moment  ago  I  looked  and  it  was — I 
couldn't  have  seen  straight  or  something's 
gone  wrong  with  it.  Anyway,  I'd  better 
get  a  move  on." 

He  turned  briskly  to  the  mirror  to 
resume  the  operation  of  shaving  and  stared 
again  as  he  put  out  his  hand  to  pick  up 
the  razor.  For  it  was  not  where  he  had 
laid  it  down  a  moment  before.  His  won- 
dering glance  quickly  discovered  it  on  the 
other  side  of  the  dressing  table,  and  bewil- 
dered amazement  overspread  his  coun- 
tenance. It  was  laden  with  the  results  of 
recent  use. 


14       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"The  devil!"  he  gasped.  "I  hadn't 
shaved!  I  hadn't  even  lathered!" 

But  the  half  fearful  look  of  inquiry  he 
darted  into  the  mirror  showed  his  face 
to  be  freshly  shaven,  and  in  the  usual 
manner,  except  the  upper  lip,  where  had 
been  left  the  faint,  dark  stubble  of  a  mus- 
tache. 


CHAPTER  II 

"LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES  OUT  OF  AN 
OTTER." 

REAKFAST  is  a  little  late,  Harry. 
Delia  is  in  one  of  her  introspective 
moods  and  it  has  made  her  slow. 
I  hope  you  won't  miss  your  boat!" 

She  turned  an  anxious  face  toward  her 
sister,  who  was  entering  the  room,  and 
Henrietta  Marne  smiled  reassuringly,  as 
she  set  down  a  suitcase,  laid  her  hat  and 
coat  upon  a  chair,  and  replied  in  a  hearty, 
cheerful  tone: 

"No,  indeed!  I've  plenty  of  time.  And 
I  was  glad  to  have  an  extra  five  minutes 
with  mother.  Do  you  think  she's  better 
than  she  was  yesterday?  Bella,  I'm  afraid 
I  ought  not  to  go  to  Mr.  Brand's  theatre 
party  tonight!"  And  her  countenance 
clouded  with  anxiety  as  they  seated  them- 
selves at  the  breakfast  table. 

"Don't    think    of    missing    it,    Harry! 

(15) 


16       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Mother  will  be  all  right.  She  seems  a 
lot  better  this  morning." 

"  Y-e-s,  I  thought  so,  but  I'm  afraid  she'll 
miss  me  tonight.  It  always  seems  to  please 
her  when  I  come  home  in  the  evening." 

"Of  course,  dear,  we'll  both  miss  you! 
You're  the  man  of  our  household,  you 
know,  and  you  go  out  and  battle  with  the 
world  every  day  and  bring  us  a  fresh  breath 
from  it  every  night!" 

"And  you  always  'meet  me  with  a 
smile,'"  laughed  Henrietta. 

"Of  course!  And  we'll  be  twice  as  glad 
to  see  you  tomorrow  night,  and  we'll  smile 
twice  as  big  a  smile,  because  you'll  have 
such  a  lot  of  things  to  tell  us." 

"Mr.  Brand  has  a  curious  effect  upon  me, 
that  I  don't  quite  like."  Henrietta  frowned 
thoughtfully  into  her  coffee  cup  while  she 
hesitated,  as  if  choosing  words  for  further 
speech.  In  shirtwaist,  linen  collar  and 
cloth  skirt  she  looked  trim,  well  groomed, 
alert.  Fair-haired  and  fresh-colored,  her 
expression  capable,  composed  and  sweet- 
natured,  she  was  what  a  Scotchman  would 
call "  a  bonny  lass."  Her  sister,  also  fair,  was 
smaller  of  mold  and  daintier  of  look  and 


"LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES "      17 

manner.  She  appeared  a  little  older,  but  her 
features  were  finer  and  more  regular  and  a 
twinkle  of  humor  barely  hid  itself  in  the 
corner  of  her  blue  eye,  as  if  ready  to  spring 
forth  at  the  first  encouragement. 

"This  begins  to  sound  romantic!"  chaffed 
Isabella.  "Let's  hope  he's  at  least  a 
pirate  in  disguise." 

"No,  let's  not.  Because  then  he'd  sail 
away  and  I'd  have  to  hunt  a  new  job. 
And  it  is  such  a  nice  place,  Bella!  I  don't 
believe  another  girl  in  my  whole  class  just 
fell  into  such  good  luck  as  I  did.  He 
seems  pleased  with  my  work,  too." 

"I  know  he  is,  Harry,  because  Mrs. 
Annister  told  me  last  week  that  Mr. 
Brand  thinks  he  has  found  a  jewel  of  a 
secretary — the  best  he's  ever  had.  I  was 
waiting" — and  a  gleam  of  mirth  sparkled 
in  her  eyes  as  she  smiled  fondly  upon  her 
sister — "to  tell  you  until  some  day  when 
you'd  be  feeling  blue.  But  I  just  couldn't 
wait  any  longer." 

Henrietta  flushed  with  pleasure.  "I'm 
so  glad  to  know  that!  If  he'll  just  keep  on 
being  satisfied  a  few  months  longer,  we'll 
have  this  place  paid  for!" 


18       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Oh,  we're  going  to  pull  through  all 
right!"  Isabella  exclaimed,  hopeful  con- 
viction in  her  tones  and  smile.  Then  she 
puckered  her  brows  and  did  her  best  to 
look  doubtful  and  alarmed  as  she  went  on 
in  a  tragic  half  whisper,  her  blue  eyes  danc- 
ing: "If  he  doesn't  turn  pirate  and  sail 
away  in  the  meantime,  or,  maybe,  make  a 
villain  out  of  you,  with  this  wicked  influence 
you're  getting  alarmed  about,  so  that  you'll 
maybe  steal  your  own  salary  and  run  away 
with  it  and  leave  mother  and  me  to  star-r-ve! 
To  think  that  a  famous  architect  should 
be  just  oozing  badness  all  around  him  like 
that — as  Mark  Twain  said,  like  ottar  of 
roses  out  of  an  otter' — at  the  same  time  that 
he's  evolving  such  beautiful  things  out  of 
his  brain!  Ugh!  It's  awful!" 

Henrietta  laughed,  a  short,  chuckling 
laugh  that  suggested  deeper  amusement 
than  it  expressed.  "Is  there  anything 
you  wouldn't  make  fun  of,  Bella?  Very 
likely  it  isn't  he,  after  all,  but  just  my  own 
innate  wickedness  coming  to  the  surface. 
It's  only  that  I  feel  a  great  desire  to  amuse 
myself,  and  am  more  willing  to  be  selfish 
about  it  than  I  used  to  be.  Three  months 


"LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES"      19 

ago  I  wouldn't  have  gone  to  this  theatre 
party,  with  mother  ill  and  you  alone  with 
her.  I  know  I'm  a  beast  to  do  it,  but  I  do 
want  to  go  dreadfully,  and " 

"And  you're  going,  and  you're  not  to 
coddle  your  conscience  any  more  about 
it.  It's  all  right,  and  we're  all  right,  and 
mother  and  I  would  feel  we  were  two 
beasts  if  you  stayed  away  on  our  account. 
What  makes  you  think  Mr.  Brand  respon- 
sible for  this  awful  depravity?  Because 
he  invited  you  to  his  house-warming?" 

"Oh,  no!  It  was  thoughtful  and  lovely 
of  him  to  include  poor  little  me  among  his 
guests,  and  I'm  as  grateful  as — Cinderella. 
But  he  sometimes  says  some  little  thing, 
in  connection  with  what  we  are  doing, 
about  the  pleasure  there  is  in  beautiful 
things  and  how  it  and  the  joy  one  ought  to 
get  out  of  life  enlarge  and  deepen  one's 
existence.  And  then  I  begin  to  feel,  away 
down  inside  of  me,  a  longing  for  pleasure, 
and  as  if  I  could  reach  out  and  grasp  all 
sorts  of — of  things,  just  for  my  own 
enjoyment." 

"And  that  makes  you  feel  dreadfully 
wicked!"  Isabella's  laugh  tinkled  through 


20       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

the  room,  a  lighter,  merrier  sound  than  her 
sister's.  "Dear  me!  As  if  we  didn't 
all  feel  that  way  once  in  a  while!" 

"You  never  do,"  Henrietta  interrupted. 

"Don't  inquire  too  deeply  into  my  feel- 
ings, unless  you  want  to  be  shocked.  Sup- 
pose we  have  some  hot  toast  to  cheer  us 
up  after  this  awful  confession.  Delia," 
to  the  maid  who  entered  in  response  to  her 
ring,  "have  you  some  fresh  toast  ready?" 

"The  toast  is  awfully  good  this  morning, 
Delia,"  said  Henrietta  smiling  at  her. 
"  It's  always  nice,  but  it's  particularly  good, 
exactly  right,  this  morning." 

"Thank  you,  Harry!"  said  Isabella  as 
the  maid  disappeared.  "I'm  so  glad  you 
said  it.  Maybe  it  will  make  her  feel  better. 
Did  you  see  that  determined,  dare-and-die 
look  on  her  face?  I'm  sure  something's 
going  to  happen!" 

"And  we've  raised  her  wages  twice 
already,"  the  other  exclaimed,  as  her  face 
took  on  the  same  anxious  expression  that 
had  just  clouded  her  sister's. 

{e  Yes,  and  we  can't  pay  her  any  more  than 
we're  giving  her  now.  She  isn't  worth  it 
and  we  couldn't  afford  it  if  she  were." 


"LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES"     21 

"Just  as  we've  begun  to  feel  sure  she  was 
satisfied  and  would  stay.  Oh,  Bella!  It's 
too  bad!  But  maybe  it's  no  worse  than  it 
was  the  last  time  we  got  scared,  when  her 
cousin  was  married  and  she  wanted  a 
day  off.  You  remember,  she  had  two  days 
of  the  introspective  mood  then." 

"Thank  you,  Delia!  It's  done  to  a 
turn!"  and  Isabella  smiled  sweetly  at  the 
returning  maid,  who  retreated  a  step  and 
stood  still,  fumbling  her  tray,  an  embar- 
rassed, determined  look  upon  her  face. 

"It's  perfectly  lovely,"  chimed  in  Hen- 
rietta with  enthusiasm. 

The  girl  shuffled  from  one  foot  to  the 
other  but  her  expression  did  not  relax. 
Isabella  cast  an  "  I-told-you-so  "  look  at 
her  sister  and  glanced  expectantly  at  the 
maid. 

"What  is  it,  Delia?" 

"I'm  thinkin',  Miss  Marne,  you'd  better 
be  lookin'  for  a  new  girl." 

"Why,  what's  the  matter?  You  don't 
want  to  leave  us,  do  you?" 

"No,  miss,  I  don't  want  to,  an'  that's 
the  truth.  But  I  don't  think  I'll  be  stayin' 
any  longer  than  you  can  get  another  girl." 


22       FATE  OF  FELIX  _  BRAND 

"What's  the  trouble,  Delia?" 

"It's  lonesomeness,  Miss  Marne.  It's 
that  respectable  out  here  that  there's 
niver  a  policeman  comes  along  this  street 
for  days  at  a  time.  An'  the  milkman  comes 
around  that  early  I  niver  see  him,  an' 
anyway  he's  elderly  an'  the  father  of  four. 
An'  it's  so  high-toned,  there  ain't  a  livery 
stable  anywhere,  an'  so  there's  none  of  them 
boys  to  pass  a  word  with  once  in  a  while. 
An*  there's  only  the  postman,  an'  him 
small  and  married." 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment  while 
the  maid  shuffled  her  feet  and  turned  her 
tray  about  and  the  sisters  bit  their  lips. 
Then  Isabella  exclaimed,  in  a  tone  of  brisk 
sympathy: 

"Yes,  Delia,  I  understand  how  you  feel, 
and  I  don't  blame  you  at  all,  but— 

"Don't  make  up  your  mind  right  away, 
Delia,"  Henrietta  broke  in.  "Think  about 
it  a  little  longer.  Maybe  something  will 
happen." 

"And  only  think,  Harry,"  Isabella 
groaned,  as  Delia  left  the  room,  "what  a 
wonderful  bargain  that  real  estate  agent 
made  us  think  we  were  getting,  just  be- 


"LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES"      23 

cause  there  were  so  many  restrictions  there 
could  never  be  anything  or  anybody  objec- 
tionable within  a  mile  of  us!" 

"I  had  an  inspiration  just  in  the  nick  of 
time,"  Henrietta  replied.  "Mrs.  Fenlow 
told  me,  when  she  was  in  the  office  the 
other  day,  waiting  for  Mr.  Brand,  that  she 
is  going  to  move  her  garage  to  this  end 
of  her  property,  which  you  know  is  just 
a  block  away,  with  an  entrance  from  this 
street — she  hoped  it  wouldn't  annoy  us — 
and  she  said  she  was  going  to  have  a  new 
chauffeur.  And  we  can  hope,  Bella,  that 
he'll  be  young  and  tall  and  handsome  and 
inclined  to  be  flirtatious  with  good-looking 
maids  who  sometimes  work  in  front  door- 
yards  nearby.  Why,  here's  Billikens!  You 
naughty  doggie,  where  have  you  been?" 

A  white  fox  terrier  had  bounded  into  the 
room  and  was  giving  her  exuberant  greeting, 
having  stopped  first  to  drop  at  her  feet  a 
rag  doll  that  he  carried  in  his  mouth. 
"There,  that  will  do,"  she  laughed  as  he 
sprang  to  her  lap,  and  thence  to  her  shoulder 
and  testified  his  overflowing  affection  with 
voice  and  tongue.  "Get  down  now  and 
take  care  of  your  babykins!" 


24       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"I  must  go  now,"  she  declared,  and, 
rising,  began  putting  on  hat  and  coat. 
"I'll  just  run  upstairs  and  kiss  mother 
good-by  again.  If  anything  should  happen, 
Bella,  or  should  you  want  me  to  come  home 
for  any  reason,  you  can  'phone  me  at  the 
office  until  five  o'clock,  and  after  that  at 
Dr.  Annister's.  Mrs.  Annister,  you  know, 
is  going  to  chaperon  Mildred  and  me. 
Wasn't  it  sweet  of  her  to  ask  me  to  stay 
all  night  with  them!" 

Five  minutes  later  she  came  hurrying 
downstairs  again,  and  Isabella,  waiting 
for  her  at  the  front  door,  put  the  suitcase 
into  her  hand,  pressed  an  arm  about  her 
waist,  and  gave  her  a  farewell  greeting. 

"Have  just  as  good  a  time  as  you  can, 
Harry,  dear,"  she  said  gaily,  "so  you'll 
have  all  the  more  to  tell  mother  and  me 
tomorrow  night!" 

The  morning  sun  shone  down  through 
the  golden  autumn  foliage  of  the  maple 
trees  that  lined  the  street,  and  now  ir- 
radiated Henrietta's  figure  and  then  dyed 
it  somberly  as  she  passed  with  rapid  step 
through  open  space  and  shadow.  Isabella 
watched  her  progress  down  the  quiet  road 


"LIKE  OTTAR  OF  ROSES"      25 

toward  the  avenue,  half  a  dozen  blocks 
away,  whence  came  the  clang  of  street  cars 
and  the  rattle  of  traffic.  But  the  girl 
turned  now  and  then  and  cast  an  eager 
glance  in  the  other  direction. 

"I'm  so  glad  she  could  go  tonight," 
Isabella  was  thinking.  "She  works  so 
hard  and  she  doesn't  have  many  pleasures 
— neither  do  I!  But  I  don't  mind — very 
much!"  She  cast  another  glance  up  the 
street  and  caught  sight  of  a  smallish  man's 
figure  bending  one-sidedly  under  a  burden 
of  other  people's  joys  and  sorrows  as  he 
passed  in  and  out  of  the  gateways  in  the 
next  block.  A  pleased  smile  brightened 
her  face  and  she  turned  back  to  watch 
her  sister's  progress. 

"There!  She  was  just  in  time  to  catch 
that  car!  She's  just  a  brick,  Harry  is! 
What  a  funny  notion  about  Felix  Brand! 
If  it  was  little  Bella,  now—  She  threw 
up  her  head  saucily  and  danced  a  step  or 
two  as  she  faced  about  to  see  how  near  the 
postman  had  come. 

"  'An'  him  small  an'  married!'  she 
repeated  to  herself  and  laughed  softly  as 
she  watched  his  slight,  burdened  figure  on 


its  slow  progress.  "Poor  Delia!  If  I 
was  in  her  place  I'm  afraid  I'd  flirt  with 
him  anyway!" 

She  ran  down  the  walk  to  the  gate  and 
greeted  him  with  a  merrily  smiling,  "Good 
morning." 

"Only  one  this  morning,  Miss  Marne," 
he  said,  smiling  back  at  her,  and  then 
added,  as  he  saw  her  face  brighten,  "but 
it's  the  one  you  want,  I  guess!" 

"Yes,"  she  gaily  replied,  "you're  always 
very  welcome  when  you  bring  me  a  letter 
like  this!" 

She  was  keenly  conscious  of  the  caress 
in  her  hand  as  she  held  the  letter  in  close 
clasp.  Once  inside  the  door  again,  she 
pressed  the  missive  softly  to  her  cheek 
as  she  whispered,  "Dear  Warren!  You 
dear  boy!  I  just  knew  you  were  writing 
to  me  yesterday,  and  you  didn't  disappoint 
me!"  ' 


CHAPTER   III 
THE  MASK  OF  His  COUNTENANCE 

IT  was  a  curious  mixture  of  people  whom 
Felix  Brand  had  bidden  to  the  theatre- 
party  and  house-warming  with  which 
he  celebrated  the  setting  up  of  his  bachelor 
household  gods  in  a  studio  apartment 
house.  But  the  varied  contents  of  that 
mixture  were  not  so  much  indicative  of 
catholic  tastes  in  human  nature  as  of  an 
underlying  trait  of  his  own  character, 
a  trait  which  led  him  to  look  first,  in  what- 
ever he  did,  for  his  own  advantage.  But 
whatever  their  differing  attitudes  toward 
life  there  were  few  of  his  guests  who  did 
not  follow  his  movements  with  admiring 
eyes  and  think  of  him  as  one  of  Fortune's 
favorites. 

For  in  this  artistically  decorated  and 
luxuriously  furnished  apartment  there  was 
nothing  to  hint  that  until  recent  years  he 
had  lived  as  yoke-fellow  with  severest 
economy.  The  son  of  a  school-teacher  in 

(27) 


28       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

a  Pennsylvania  town,  the  family  purse  had 
had  all  that  it  could  do  to  provide  for  him 
a  course  in  college  and  the  training  for  his 
profession.  But  at  the  beginning  of  his 
career  he  had  won  a  rich  prize  in  an  archi- 
tectural competition,  and  afterwards  com- 
missions and  rewards  and  honors  had  flowed 
in  upon  him  in  constantly  increasing  meas- 
ure. While  he  did  not  yet  quite  merit 
the  adjective  which  Isabella  Marne  had 
applied  to  him,  there  was  every  promise 
that  he  would  soon  be,  in  truth,  a  "famous 
architect." 

Although  he  had  barely  entered  his  third 
decade,  certain  characteristic  features  of 
his  work  had  already  won  attention,  and 
these  had  been  praised  so  much,  and  had 
begun  to  exercise  so  evident  an  influence, 
that  many  looked  upon  him  as  destined 
to  be  and  as,  indeed,  already  becoming, 
the  leader  of  a  new  and  fruitful  movement 
in  American  architecture.  A  Felix  Brand 
design,  whether  for  a  dwelling,  a  church, 
a  business  building,  or  a  civic  monument, 
was  sure  to  be  marked  by  simplicity  of 
conception,  exquisite  sense  of  proportion 
and  rhythmic  harmony  of  line. 


MASK  OF  HIS  COUNTENANCE  29 

"What  a  perfectly  charming  manner  he 
has!"  said  Miss  Ardeen  Andrews  to  Henri- 
etta Marne,  who  knew  of  her  as  a  rising 
young  actress.  "And  such  wonderful  eyes! 
Why,  there  is  a  caress  in  them  if  he  only 
looks  at  you!" 

"Yes,"  replied  Henrietta  in  a  matter-of- 
fact  way,  "it's. a  very  pleasant  expression, 
isn't  it?  But  it  doesn't  mean  anything  in 
particular.  It's  just  their  natural  expres- 


sion.'' 


"And  he's  not  only  handsome,"  Miss 
Andrews  went  on  with  enthusiasm,  "but 
he's  the  most  sensitive  and  refined-looking 
man  I've  met  in  a  long  time."  And  she 
flashed  a  glance  of  covert  admiration  across 
the  room  at  their  host,  who  was  talking 
with  two  men  of  such  different  type  as  to 
make  his  own  courtly  manner  and  intel- 
lectual features  noticeable  by  contrast. 

A  little  later  Henrietta,  passing  the  two 
men,  heard  them  speculating,  in  tones 
touched  with  an  Irish  brogue,  as  to  whether 
or  not  the  young  architect  was  already 
making  money  enough  out  of  his  profession 
to  pay  for  such  surroundings  as  these  in 
which  he  was  settling  himself. 


30       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"There's  money  enough  in  it  when  you 
get  to  the  top,"  one  of  them  was  saying. 
Henrietta  remembered  him  as  a  certain 
district  political  leader,  Flaherty  by  name, 
with  whom  her  employer  had  lately  held 
several  conferences.  "Money  enough  to 
buy  old  masters  to  paper  your  walls  with 
and  velvet  chairs  to  sit  in  for  a  year,  and 
never  the  same  one  twice.  But  Brand's 
not  up  to  the  top  yet.  He  must  have  some 
other  jug  to  go  to,  and  I'd  like  to  know  just 
what  it  is  and  how  big  it  is!" 

Henrietta  could  have  told  them  what  it 
was,  and  she  was  presently  reminded  of  it 
when  two  men  were  presented  to  her  and 
she  recognized  their  names  as  that  of  the 
firm  of  brokers  through  which  Felix  Brand 
had  for  some  time  been  carrying  on  what 
she  knew  to  be  very  profitable  operations 
in  stocks. 

"The  doctor  won't  forget  us  entirely, 
will  he,  Mrs.  Annister?"  the  host  was  say- 
ing to  the  tall  and  handsome  woman  with 
iron-gray  hair  and  warm-colored  cheeks  who 
sat  beside  him  at  the  supper  table. 

"I  hope  not;  but  you  know  I  never 
vouch  for  him.  Mildred  impressed  it  upon 


MASK  OF  HIS  COUNTENANCE  31 

him  that  he  must  be  here  in  time  for  sup- 
per," and  she  glanced  at  the  young  replica 
of  herself  at  Brand's  other  hand. 

"Yes,"  confirmed  the  girl,  "he  promised 
very  faithfully  that  he'd  come  as  soon  as 
he  could.  But  he  was  to  see  a  case  tonight 
in  which  he's  very  much  interested,  and  if 
he  gets  to  thinking  and  reading  about  that, 
you  know,  Mr.  Brand,  that  he  is  just  as 
likely  as  not  to  forget  all  about  us." 

"Oh,  yes,  that  case!"  said  her  mother. 
"It's  most  curious  and  interesting — one  of 
the  sort  that  makes  you  feel  creepy." 

"Do  tell  us  about  it  then,"  exclaimed 
Ardeen  Andrews,  farther  down  the  table. 

"It's  a  man  possessed  by  the  illusion  that 
his  dreams  are  the  real  thing  and  his  wak- 
ing hours  are  imaginary.  Just  think  what 
a  topsy-turvy  state  that  must  keep  his 
family  in!" 

Felix  Brand  looked  up  with  sudden 
interest,  but  before  he  could  speak  a  man's 
voice  called  out  from  the  other  end  of  the 
table,  "The  doctor  doesn't  consider  faith 
in  one's  dreams  evidence  of  a  pathological 
state,  does  he,  Mrs.  Annister?"  It  was 
Robert  Moreton,  a  young  author,  whose 


32       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

name  was  of  frequent  occurrence  in  maga- 
zine tables  of  contents. 

"If  he  does/7  Mrs.  Moreton  broke  in, 
"how  crazy  he  would  think  you,  Rob! 
You  see,  when  he  is  writing  a  story,"  and 
she  glanced  up  and  down  the  table,  "  Robert 
imagines  it's  being  acted  out  around  him, 
and  I  have  to  be  the  heroine  and  the 
villainess  and  the  parlor  maid  and  the  cook 
and  answer  to  all  their  names." 

"That  must  give  some  variety  to  exist- 
ence, Mrs.  Moreton,"  said  Brand.  "And 
variety  is  the  best  spice  for  life  that  I 
know  of." 

"Do  you  know  that  story  of  Colonel 
Higginson's,"  Moreton  went  on,  "called  'A 
Monarch  of  Dreams/  about  a  man  who 
developed  the  power  of  controlling  his 
dreams  and  became  so  delighted  and  ab- 
sorbed in  them  that  he  gave  himself  up  to 
the  life  he  lived  while  asleep  and  allowed 
his  real  existence  to  wither  away  until  it 
was  of  no  consequence  at  all  to  him  or  any 
one  else?  It  has  always  seemed  to  me  a 
wonderful  bit  of  eerie  imagination.  And 
there  are  such  alluring  suggestions  for 
experiment  in  it!" 


MASK  OF  HIS  COUNTENANCE  33 

Felix  Brand's  brown  eyes  were  fixed  in  a 
speculative  stare  upon  the  mass  of  roses 
that  glowed  at  the  center  of  the  table. 
Miss  Marne,  glancing  at  him,  knew  that, 
whether  or  not  he  was  thinking  of  them, 
he  was  conscious  of  their  beauty  in  every 
fibre  of  his  being.  "I  wonder,"  he  said 
slowly,  and  she  saw  Mildred  Annister's 
gaze  turn  quickly  upon  him  as  the  girl  bent 
forward  with  parted  lips.  "I  wonder  very, 
very  much,"  he  repeated,  "just  how  much 
one  could  do  toward  making  one's  dream- 
people  come  alive.  I  mean,  toward  making 
the  different  kind  of  person  one  sometimes 
is  in  a  dream  the  real  person  when  one  is 
awake.  You  know  how  different  you  seem 
sometimes  when  you  are  asleep,  not  at  all 
the  same  kind  of  person  you  are  when  you 
are  awake.  Now,  wouldn't  it  be  interest- 
ing if  you  could  make  yourself  be  that 
person  sometimes  after  you  wake  up?  It 
seems  to  me  it  would  be  a  delightful  change 
from  being  the  same  person  all  the  time. 
This  being  tied  fast  to  yourself  year  in  and 
year  out  gets  very  monotonous." 

Miss  Annister  gave  a  little  gasp  and 
leaned  nearer  to  him,  distress  in  her  eyes. 


34       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Don't  say  that!"  she  begged,  hardly  above 
a  whisper.  " Don't  even  think  such  things! 
You  are  you,  and  I  wouldn't  have  you  dif- 
ferent for  worlds  and  worlds!" 

Her  disturbed  little  appeal  was  shielded 
from  observation  by  a  vivacious  feminine 
voice  which  called  out  simultaneously: 
"  Please  finish  my  house  before  you  turn 
yourself  into  anybody  else,  Mr.  Brand! 
You  know  we've  only  settled  on  the  back 
porch  and  one  dormer  window,  so  far,  and 
I'll  leave  it  to  these  good  people  if  that's 
enough  for  a  family  of  six  to  live  in!" 

Henrietta  smiled  discreetly  at  her  plate, 
for  she  knew  along  what  a  tortuous  path  of 
inchoate  ideas  and  breezy  caprices  Mrs. 
Grahame  Fenlow,  upon  the  sightliness  of 
whose  new  chauffeur  she  and  her  sister 
were  basing  their  hopes  of  keeping  their 
maid  of  all  work,  had  led  the  architect  in 
his  attempt  to  design  a  new  house  for  her. 

"Aren't  you  afraid,  mother,"  exclaimed 
Mark  Fenlow,  from  his  seat  beside  Hen- 
rietta, "if  you  don't  decide  pretty  soon 
whether  you  want  that  dormer  window  in 
the  cellar  or  the  roof  and  whether  the  back 
porch  is  to  be  before  or  behind  the  house, 


MASK  OF  HIS  COUNTENANCE  35 

that  Mr.  Brand  will  be  driven  to  try  a  new 
personality,  or  incarnation,  or — or  drink,  or 
whatever  you  call  it!" 

"Why,  here's  the  doctor  at  last,"  cried 
Felix  Brand  as  he  rose  to  greet  the  new- 
comer and  lead  him  to  his  seat  at  the  table. 

Dr.  Philip  Annister,  smiling  affably  at 
the  company,  scarcely  looked  the  famous 
specialist  in  nerve  diseases  that  he  was. 
Short  and  slight  in  physique,  his  head,  when 
he  stood  beside  his  handsome  wife,  was 
barely  on  a  level  with  hers.  Wherefore, 
his  shoes,  ever  since  his  wedding  day,  had 
been  noticeably  high  of  heel,  and  rarely 
was  he  known  to  wear  other  head  covering 
than  a  silk  hat.  He  had  cast  aside  the  look 
of  abstraction  which  commonly  possessed 
his  thin,  pale  countenance  and  his  manner 
and  speech  of  modest  geniality  soon  won 
for  him  the  favor  of  all  the  heterogeneous 
company  to  whom  he  was  not  already 
known.  His  wife  noticed  that  his  eyes 
rested  frequently  upon  their  host  and  later 
she  said  to  him : 

"Felix  is  looking  handsomer  than  ever 
tonight,  isn't  he!" 

"Yes,  I  suppose  so,"  he  answered  hes- 


36       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

itatingly.  "But,  Margaret,  there's  an 
expression  growing  on  his  face  that  I  don't 
like.  It's  creating  a  doubt  about  him  in 
my  mind." 

"What  do  you  mean?  His  manner 
tonight  toward  all  this  queer  mixture  of 
people  has  been  perfect — cordial,  unassum- 
ing, delicately  courteous  and  friendly  to- 
ward every  one.  And,  really,  Philip,  I 
don't  know  a  handsomer  man!  His  face 
is  so  refined,  and  those  brown,  caressing 
eyes  of  his  are  enough  to  turn  any  girl's 
head.  I  don't  wonder  in  the  least  that 
Mildred  is  so  completely  in  love  with  him. 
What  is  it  you  don't  like  about  his  looks, 
Philip?" 

"I  don't  quite  know,  and  perhaps  it 
isn't  fair  to  him  to  put  it  into  words  until 
I  do  know.  It  is  less  evident  tonight,  when 
he  is  all  animation  and  his  thoughts  are  full 
of  the  entertainment  of  his  guests,  than  I 
have  seen  it  sometimes  lately.  You  know, 
Margaret,  Felix  has  an  unusually  expressive 
countenance.  It's  like  a  crystal  mask,  and 
it's  bound  to  reveal  the  very  shape  and 
color  of  his  soul.  I  think  I  begin  to  see 
signs  in  it  of  selfishness  and  grossness — " 


MASK  OF  HIS  COUNTENANCE  37 

"Oh,  Philip!  How  can  you!  Crossness! 
He's  the  most  refined ' 

"You  haven't  announced  Mildred's  en- 
gagement yet,  have  you?"  her  husband 
interrupted.  "I'm  glad  of  that,"  he  went 
on  in  a  relieved  tone  as  she  shook  her  head, 
"and  I  hope  you  will  not  for  some  time." 

"Mildred  is  beginning  to  look  forward 
rather  eagerly  to  being  married,"  said  Mrs. 
Annister,  smiling  soberly.  "I'm  almost 
afraid  she's  more  in  love  than  he  is." 

"  I'm  so  glad  I  came  tonight.  It  has  been 
lovely!"  Henrietta  Marne  at  that  moment 
was  saying  to  her  host,  at  the  other  side  of 
the  room. 

"You  have  enjoyed  it?"  and  he  bent 
upon  her  his  brown  eyes  with  their  look  of 
caressing  indulgence.  "I'm  glad  of  that, 
for  I'm  afraid  you  don't  have  as  many 
enjoyments  as  a  girl  ought  to  have,  by 
right  of  her  youth  and  beauty  and  charm." 

"I  was  afraid  I  ought  not  to  come, 
because  my  mother  is  ill." 

"Ah,  that  Puritan  conscience  of  yours, 
Miss  Marne!  Don't  be  so  afraid  of  it 
when  the  question  is  nothing  more  than 
getting  some  innocent  pleasure  out  of  life." 


38       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"But  one  isn't  afraid  of  one's  conscience. 
One  just  takes  counsel  of  it,  or  with  it." 

"Of  course!  But  if  one — you,  for 
instance — yielded  to  it  more  than  its  due— 
and  it  really  is  insatiable,  you  know,  if  you 
let  it  get  the  upper  hand — what  a  wretched 
affair  life  would  be!  Simply  unendurable!" 

"But  there's  always  a  satisfaction  in 
doing  what  one  ought  to  do,  Mr.  Brand— 
don't  you  think  so? — even  if  it  is  hard." 

"Oh,  if  you  like  your  satisfaction  to 
taste  hard  and  bitter!  I  don't!  I  think  it's 
much  better  to  hold  ourselves  free  to  take 
advantage  of  all  the  possibilities  of  happi- 
ness, little  and  big,  that  come  our  way. 
It's  really  a  duty  that  we  owe  ourselves. 
And,  of  course,  if  we  are  happy  we  make 
others  about  us  happy  too.  You,  I'm  sure, 
need  enjoyment  so  much  that  it  would  be  a 
great  mistake  for  you  to  throw  away  any 
opportunity.  And  I'm  very  glad  you 
didn't  neglect  this  little  one!" 

Mrs.  Fenlow  and  her  son  were  at  his 
elbow  to  say  goodnight,  and  as  he  shook 
hands  with  Mark,  whose  mother  had  al- 
ready passed  on  to  an  exchange  of  confi- 
dences concerning  hairdressers  with  Miss 


MASK  OF  HIS  COUNTENANCE  39 

Ardeen  Andrews,  he  laid  his  hand  affec- 
tionately on  the  young  man's  shoulder  and 
said  in  a  low  tone : 

"You're  coming  tomorrow  night,  Mark, 
of  course?" 

"Sure!  D.  V.  and  d.  p. — God  willing  and 
the  devil  permitting!" 

"It  will  be  very  different  from  this," 
and  Brand  smiled  slightly,  a  winning, 
deprecating  smile,  as  with  the  least  per- 
ceptible motion  of  his  head  he  indicated 
the  company  that  filled  his  spacious  draw- 
ing room.  "But  a  man  doesn't  want  his 
relaxations  to  be  all  alike,  any  more  than 
he  wants  all  flowers  to  be  of  the  same 
color." 


CHAPTER  IV 

BILLIKINS  is  FRIGHTENED 

IT  was  inevitable  that  the  personality 
of  Felix  Brand  should  loom  large  in 
the  home  of  his  secretary.  Mrs.  Marne 
was  a  semi-invalid  and  suffered  frequent 
relapses  into  more  serious  illness.  The  care 
of  her  and  the  management  of  their  little 
household  were  Isabella's  part,  and  to 
these  two,  much  confined  at  home  and  by 
necessity  cut  off  from  nearly  all  outside 
pleasures  and  interests,  the  chief  daily 
event  was  Henrietta's  return  from  her  busy 
hours  and  responsible  tasks  in  the  archi- 
tect's office.  But,  of  still  more  importance, 
their  worldly  welfare  hung  upon  the  salary 
which  he  paid  to  the  younger  sister. 

Mrs.  Maine's  husband  had  been  a  physi- 
cian in  one  of  the  smaller  cities  of  Massachu- 
setts; but,  though  a  New  Englander,  he 
had  not  possessed  the  characteristic  thrift 
of  the  sons  of  that  region,  and  consequently 
his  widow  and  his  daughters  found,  after 

(40) 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    41 

his  death,  that  the  settlement  of  his  affairs 
left  them  a  very  slender  sum  of  money. 
It  was  necessary  that  one  of  the  young 
women  should  become  an  income  earner, 
and  it  was  decided  that  Henrietta,  since 
she  had  a  better  head  for  affairs  and  more 
liking  for  business,  should  take  this  share 
of  their  burden.  There  was  enough  money 
to  give  her  a  course  in  secretarial  training 
in  a  women's  vocational  college  in  Boston 
and  to  support  them  all  in  economical 
comfort  until  she  should  be  ready  to  begin 
her  work.  As  she  was  at  once  successful 
in  finding  a  position  in  New  York,  they 
invested  the  few  hundred  dollars  still  left 
in  a  first  payment  upon  a  little  home  in 
Staten  Island,  and  they  were  now  carefully 
husbanding  Henrietta's  salary  and  paying 
off  the  remaining  debt  upon  the  instalment 
plan. 

It  was  through  Dr.  Annister  that 
Henrietta  found  a  good  position  so  quickly. 
He  and  Dr.  Marne  had  been  classmates 
and  warm  friends  during  the  years  of  their 
medical  training,  and  afterward,  although 
one  had  gone  to  New  York  and  become  one 
of  the  famous  specialists  of  his  generation 


42       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

and  the  other  had  sunk  into  the  obscurity 
of  general  practice  in  a  small  city,  they  had 
kept  up  their  friendship  in  a  desultory  way, 
with  occasional  meetings  at  medical  con- 
ventions and  now  and  then  a  letter.  When 
Dr.  Marne  died,  a  missive  came  from  his 
friend  that  seemed  so  simple  and  genuine 
in  its  feeling  that  it  deeply  touched 
Henrietta,  to  whom  fell  the  duty  of  answer- 
ing it,  because  of  her  mother's  stricken 
condition. 

The  memory  of  that  letter  and  a  warmly 
reverent  feeling  for  the  friendship  that  had 
called  it  forth  stayed  long  in  her  heart. 
And  at  last,  when  she  was  ready  to  try 
conclusions  with  the  world,  and  felt  sure, 
with  the  usual  conviction  of  youth,  that 
it  would  be  much  better  to  go  somewhere 
else  to  begin,  she  wrote  to  Dr.  Annister, 
telling  him  briefly  her  plans  and  hopes  and 
what  her  training  had  been.  And  the 
famous  Dr.  Philip  Annister  interested  him- 
self in  the  daughter  of  his  old  friend,  and 
at  once  found  for  her  a  well-paid  position 
as  secretary  for  Felix  Brand,  his  prospective 
son-in-law.  Mrs.  Annister  also  showed 
much  kindly  feeling  for  the  girl  and  often 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    43 

had  her  stay  overnight  at  their  home  for  a 
visit  to  the  theatre  or  the  opera. 

Between  Mildred  Annister  and  Henrietta 
there  existed  a  friendship  which  made  up  in 
outward  warmth  what  it  lacked  in  depth. 
For  Mildred,  with  her  woman's  heart  but 
lately  awakened  and  filled  to  the  brim  with 
absorbed  and  adoring  first  love,  could  not 
help  some  secret  resentment  that  any  other 
woman  should  be  anything  to  her  beloved 
or  give  him  any  service.  Her  good  sense 
told  her  that  this  was  unreasonable,  while 
her  respect  and  kindly  feeling  for  Henrietta 
made  her  ashamed  of  it.  So  she  did  her 
best  to  conceal  it  and  in  the  effort  overdid 
her  expressions  of  affection.  Henrietta 
would  have  responded  to  these  with  girlish 
ardor,  for  she  liked  Mildred  and  greatly 
admired  her  tall  and  stately  beauty,  had 
she  not  felt  some  barrier  just  below  the 
surface  that  kept  her  as  reserved,  in  all 
the  little  confidences  that  usually  go  on 
between  young  women,  as  was  Mildred 
herself.  She  did  not  even  know  of  the 
semi-engagement,  to  which  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Annister  had  not  yet  given  their  full 
assent,  that  existed  between  Mildred  and 


44       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Felix  Brand,  although  she  felt  sure  that  the 
girl  was  whole-heartedly  in  love  with  him. 
As  the  weeks  went  on  and  autumn 
merged  into  winter,  Henrietta  sometimes 
noticed  a  harried  look  upon  her  employer's 
countenance.  She  wondered  much  about 
this,  for  he  was  winning  success  and  honors 
in  ample  measure.  An  international  com- 
mittee of  artists  and  architects,  sitting  in 
judgment  upon  the  competitive  designs 
submitted  for  a  memorial  building  to  one 
of  the  country's  heroes,  had  announced 
their  decision  awarding  the  prize  to  Felix 
Brand.  He  had  been  made  a  member  of 
the  municipal  art  advisory  commission 
and  a  little  later  a  national  society  of 
architects  had  elected  him  to  its  presidency. 
There  were  private  commissions  in  plenty, 
enough  to  keep  him  and  his  assistants 
busy.  And,  finally, — and  Brand  laughingly 
told  his  secretary  that  he  considered  this 
the  most  signal  success  of  his  career — Mrs. 
Fenlow  had  approved  his  last  design  for 
the  country  house  she  purposed  to  build 
up  the  Hudson  and  had  been  moved  to 
transports  of  enthusiasm  over  its  every 
detail. 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    45 

In  addition  to  these  honors  and  successes, 
Henrietta  knew  that  he  was  making  much 
money  outside  of  his  profession;  that  his 
operations  in  stocks  were  nearly  always 
profitable,  that  once  or  twice  they  had  been 
richly  so,  and  that  he  had  bought  a  large 
number  of  shares  in  a  marble  quarry  for 
whose  product  his  designs  often  called. 

So  she  marveled  much  within  herself 
that  he  should  so  often  look  careworn  and 
show  a  furtive  anxiety  in  his  eyes  and  face 
when  he  had,  or  was  rapidly  winning, 
almost  every  good  thing  that  mortals 
count  a  source  of  happiness  and  when  even 
her  intimacy  with  his  affairs  did  not  reveal 
a  solitary  cause  for  distress  or  uneasiness 
of  mind. 

She  spoke  of  this  sometimes  at  home. 
For  her  mother  and  sister  were  always 
concerned  to  know  what  her  day  had  been, 
and  Felix  Brand  being  so  important  a 
person  to  their  lives,  they  were  deeply 
interested  in  whatever  he  did  or  said  and 
in  everything  Henrietta  could  tell  them 
about  him.  They  were  scrupulously  care- 
ful not  to  ask  or  to  speak  about  anything 
that  would  approach  too  nearly  her  confi- 


46       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

dential  relations  with  her  employer.  But 
outside  those  lines  there  was  a  large  and 
interesting  territory  wherein  they  could 
and  did  have  much  converse  together 
about  the  architect,  his  success,  and  his 
personality. 

On  a  bright  and  mild  Sunday  morning 
in  mid-winter,  whose  sunshine  was  full  of 
that  guileful  promise  of  spring  with  which 
the  tricky  weather  goddess  of  the  Man- 
hattan region  loves  to  play  pranks  upon  its 
residents,  the  two  Maine  sisters,  in  their 
mother's  room,  were  chatting  with  her  as 
she  reclined  in  the  sun  beside  a  south 
window. 

"I've  some  good  news,"  said  Henrietta. 
"I  didn't  tell  you  last  night,  because  I 
knew  we'd  all  be  gossiping  in  here  this 
morning  and  it  would  be  so  cosy  to  talk  it 
all  over  then.  Mr.  Brand  has  raised  my 
salary,  to  date  from  the  first  of  this  month!" 

Mrs.  Marne's  thin  hand  sought  her 
daughter's  where  it  lay  upon  the  arm  of  her 
chair  and  then  hastened  to  wipe  away  a 
tear  or  two.  For  she  was  nervously  much 
broken  and  her  tears,  whether  of  joy  or 
sorrow,  came  easily. 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    47 

Isabella  sprang  up,  exclaiming,  "Harry! 
How  splendid !"  And  the  two  girls  hugged 
each  other  delightedly  and  kissed  first  each 
other  and  then  their  mother.  Then  they 
kissed  each  other  again  and  whirled  about 
in  a  waltz  measure.  BiUikins,  the  white 
fox  terrier,  quickly  put  a  stop  to  this 
exuberance  by  endeavoring  to  take  part 
in  it  himself,  barking  furiously  and  making 
ecstatic  rushes  between  them. 

"The  second  time,  dear!"  exclaimed 
Isabella  as  they  settled  down  again,  cheeks 
flushed  and  eyes  shining.  "Only  think 
of  it!  At  Christmas,  and  now  again  so 
soon!" 

"It  isn't  so  very  much,"  said  Henrietta, 
"only  ten  dollars  a  month  more,  but  it 
will  be  a  lot  for  us,  and  it  means  a  great 
big  lot  to  me,  because  it  makes  me  feel 
that  I'm  succeeding.  What  is  it,  Billikens? 
Do  you  want  to  come  up?  And  you've 
brought  babykins,  haven't  you?  Come 
on,  then,  both  of  you."  The  fox  terrier 
was  begging  and  wriggling  beside  her,  his 
inseparable  companion  and  plaything,  a 
dilapidated  rag-doll,  in  his  mouth.  She 
lifted  them  to  her  lap,  where,  after  much 


48       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

licking  and  nuzzling  of  the  doll,  he  curled 
himself  up  to  sleep. 

"Of  course  you're  succeeding!"  cried 
Isabella.  "How  could  you  help  it  when 
you're  the  cleverest  girl  in  New  York  and 
work  the  hardest  and — have  such  a  nice 
home  to  stay  in  at  night!" 

"It  will  soon  be  nicer,"  rejoined  Henrietta 
with  a  laugh,  "when  we  get  rid  of  its 
mortgage  decoration.  Now  we  can  get 
that  all  paid  off  by  the  end  of  the  summer 
and  then  we'll  be  sure  of  a  home,  whatever 
happens." 

Mrs.  Marne  pressed  her  hand  in  a  closer 
clasp.  "Dear  child!  You  and  Bella  are 
the  best  children  a  mother  ever  had.  I've 
just  been  thinking  that  I  really  have  three 
children,  a  son  as  well  as  two  daughters. 
For  you're  just  as  good  as  a  son,  Harry, 
besides  being  a  daughter  too.  When  you 
were  born,  dear,  I  was  disappointed  that 
you  weren't  a  boy,  and  sorry  for  you  that 
you  weren't." 

"Were  you  sorry  about  me,  too?"  de- 
manded Isabella  saucily. 

"You,  dear!     Why,  when  you  came— 
you  were  the  first,  you  know — I  was    too 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    49 

proud  and  delighted  to  think  of  anything 
but  just  that  I  had  you.  By  the  time  Harry 
arrived  I  had  learned  more  about  what  it 
means  to  be  a  woman  and  I  was  sorry  I  had 
brought  another  into  the  world.  But 
I  soon  got  over  all  that  and  was  so  glad 
to  have  you  both.  After  all,  girls,  it  is  a 
grand  thing  to  be  a  wife  and  a  mother!" 

"Yes,  if  you  can  only  get  your  salary 
raised  often  enough,"  said  Isabella  gaily. 
"And  I  guess,"  she  went  on  as  she  saw  a 
little  wave  of  amusement  cross  her  mother's 
face,  "I'd  better  have  that  settled  right 
away.  I'll  write  to  Warren  that  I  shall 
expect  an  increase  every  time  Harry  gets 
one.  Tell  us  more  about  your  raise, 
Harry.  What  did  Mr.  Brand  say?" 

"Oh,  he  was  very  nice — but  he  always 
is  nice,  just  as  kind  and  courteous  as  can 
be.  He  said  he  was  much  pleased  with 
the  good  judgment  and  the  care  with  which 
I  had  managed  things  while  he  was  away. 
Before  this,  when  he's  been  gone  for  a  day 
or  two  or  three,  he  has  made  some  arrange- 
ments beforehand  and  has  told  me  where 
he  would  be  so  that  I  could  telegraph  or 
'phone  him  on  the  long  distance  if  necessary. 


50       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

But  lately  he's  been  called  away  twice  so 
suddenly  that  he  left  me  no  directions  and 
I  didn't  know  his  address,  and  so,  although 
he  was  gone  only  two  or  three  days  each 
time,  I  had  a  good  deal  of  responsibility. 
But  he  was  very  kind  and  praised  everything 
I  did  and  yesterday  he  told  me  that  he 
thought  I  deserved  a  reward  and  as  he 
might  be  called  away  again  the  same  way, 
he  didn't  think  it  was  fair  to  put  so  much 
more  upon  me  without  paying  me  for  it." 

" Isn't  he  lovely!"  exclaimed  Isabella. 
"As  Delia  says  about  Mrs.  Fenlow's  chauf- 
feur, 'he's  sure  very  gentlemanly  and 
strong!" 

"Indeed,  you've  been  most  fortunate 
in  getting  so  good  a  position,  Harry, 
dear!"  said  Mrs.  Marne,  her  voice  trembling 
with  her  depth  of  feeling.  "I  fairly  ached 
with  anxiety  over  your  going  into  this 
secretarial  work,  but  Mr.  Brand  has  proved 
to  be  all  that  even  his  secretary's  mother 
could  expect  or  wish." 

"And  here  he  is,  right  now!"  cried 
Isabella  as  she  glanced  from  the  window 
at  the  sound  of  an  automobile  in  the  quiet 
street.  "And  if  he  isn't  going  to  honor 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    51 

our  humble  but  happy  home  with  a  call 
from  his  very  handsome  self!"  she  went 
on  excitedly  as  the  machine  slowed  down 
and  its  occupant,  glancing  at  the  house 
numbers,  stopped  in  front  of  their  cottage. 

He  told  Henrietta  that  he  had  just 
learned  it  might  be  necessary  for  him  to 
leave  town  that  day  and  that  he  wanted 
to  give  her  some  instructions  for  her 
guidance  if  he  should  be  away  more  than  a 
day  or  two.  His  manner  was  disturbed 
and  restless,  although  not  lacking  in  its 
usual  suave  and  gentle  courtesy,  and  she 
noted  in  his  face,  more  strongly  marked 
than  she  had  seen  it  before,  that  troubled, 
anxious  look  concerning  which  she  had 
already  wondered  much.  And  from  the 
whole  man  there  seemed  to  her  to  emanate 
an  unconscious  appeal,  as  of  one  in  such 
sore  and  badgering  straits  that  he  knew 
not  where  to  turn  for  help. 

"I  may  be  able,"  he  said,  "to — put  off 
this  trip,  to  make  some  arrangement  about 
— this  matter,  so  that  it  will  not  be  necessary 
for  me  to  go.  I  hope  so — I  don't  want  to 
leave  the  office  just  now.  And,  by  the 
way,  if  I  do  go,  there's  another  thing. 


52       FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

If  there  should  be  a  letter  in  my  general 
mail — not  marked  'personal/  you  know- 
he  hesitated,  and  Henrietta  observed  that 
he  turned  his  eyes  away  and  did  not  meet 
her  gaze  as  he  went  on,  "but  not  of  the 
regular  business  sort,  just  glance  at  the 
signature  first  thing,  won't  you,  please? 
And  if  it  should  be  signed  'Hugh  Gordon,' 
don't  read  it,  but  lay  it  aside  for  me  to 
look  at  when  I  return." 

He  straightened  up  and  she  could  feel 
the  effort  of  will  with  which  he  conquered 
his  perturbation  and  continued  in  a  more 
offhand  way:  " Gordon  is  apt  to  write 
confidential  things  about  his  own  affairs 
and  he  is  the  sort  of  man  who  would  never 
think  of  marking  a  letter  'personal." 

Billikens  trotted  into  the  room,  his  doll 
in  his  mouth,  and,  laying  his  burden  down 
in  mid-floor,  as  if  to  make  easier  the  con- 
centration of  his  faculties  upon  the  duty 
of  investigating  this  stranger,  advanced 
with  signs  of  ready  friendship.  Brand 
responded  to  his  overtures,  but  the  dog, 
after  a  preliminary  smell  or  two,  broke  into 
a  sudden  howl  and  trembled  as  if  with  fear. 
Reproved  by  Henrietta,  he  hastened  back 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    53 

to  his  babykins,  with  which  he  rushed 
to  a  place  of  safety  beneath  her  chair. 
There  she  heard  him  giving  vent  to  his 
emotions  in  subdued  whining  and  growling 
and  in  much  worrying  and  tearing  of  the 
rag-doll. 

Brand  rose  to  go,  but  lingered  beside 
his  chair  and  made  conversation,  as  though 
loath  to  take  his  leave;  and  Henrietta, 
catching  a  glimpse  of  Isabella  passing 
through  the  hall,  called  her  in. 

Whenever  Isabella  entered  a  room  it  was 
like  the  advent  of  a  merry  little  breeze. 
For  all  the  look  and  manner  of  her  suggested 
buoyant  spirits  and  gaiety  of  heart,  from 
the  lurking  twinkle  in  her  blue  eye  to  her 
light  quick  step.  Daintiness  and  prettiness 
characterized  her  attire,  which  she  carried 
gracefully,  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  soft, 
faint  rustle.  With  pleasure  Henrietta 
watched  her  employer's  face  brighten  and 
clear  as  he  talked  with  her  sister.  The 
agitation  faded  from  his  manner  and 
presently  she  was  aware  that  the  impression 
she  had  had  of  struggle  and  appeal,  which 
had  begun  to  tense  her  own  nerves,  had 
disappeared. 


54       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"I  don't  wonder,"  she  thought.  "Bella 
is  so  light-hearted  and  so  merry,  and  so 
pretty  and  sweet,  too,  that  she  could  charm 
away  anybody's  dumps.  I  wish  I  had 
some  of  her  gift  that  way — I'm  always 


so  serious." 


Brand  suggested  that  they  should  take  a 
spin  with  him  in  his  automobile.  "The 
day  is  so  fine,"  he  pleaded,  as  they  hesitated 
a  little  before  answering.  "You  don't 
know  how  splendid  it  is!  And  the  roads 
are  good  down  through  the  island."  He 
glanced  from  one  to  the  other  and  Henrietta 
saw  in  his  brown  eyes  a  look  of  eager 
wistfulness. 

"It  would  be  lovely  and  a  great  treat 
for  us/'  she  said.  "You've  no  idea,  Mr. 
Brand,  what  a  temptation  it  is.  But  we 
don't  like  to  leave  mother  alone,  for  she's 
never  very  well." 

"Oh,  is  that  all?"  he  exclaimed.  "Then 
bring  her  along!  It  would  do  her  a  lot  of 
good.  Wrap  her  up  well  and  I'll  carry 
her  out  to  the  auto." 

He  begged  Isabella  not  to  desert  him  while 
Henrietta  went  to  prepare  their  mother  for 
the  drive. 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    55 

"How  well  they  get  on  together,"  said 
Mrs.  Marne,  smiling  at  the  gay  laughter 
that  now  and  then  floated  up  the  stairs. 

As  they  came  slowly  down,  the  elder 
woman  leaning  heavily  upon  the  other's 
shoulder,  Felix  Brand  ran  into  the  hall, 
exclaiming: 

"Why  didn't  you  call  me  and  let  me 
bring  her  down!"  And  at  once,  notwith- 
standing her  assurance  that  she  could 
walk,  he  picked  her  up  and  carried  her  to 
the  street  in  his  arms,  saying,  "I  can  just 
as  well  save  you  that  fatigue,"  and  carefully 
settled  her  in  the  automobile. 

"You'll  sit  in  the  front  with  me  and  help 
me  drive,  won't  you?"  he  said  to  Isabella 
as  the  two  girls  came  out  cloaked  and 
furred. 

"Yes,  do,  Bella,"  said  Henrietta  cor- 
dially in  response  to  a  glance  from  her 
sister,  "and  give  me  a  chance  to  show  what 
good  care  I  can  take  of  mother." 

Although  Isabella  was  the  elder  of  the 
two  by  three  years  and  formerly  had  been 
accustomed  to  take  the  lead  between  them, 
since  the  younger  had  become  the  support 
of  the  family  she  was  beginning,  quite 


56       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

unconsciously,  to  lean  upon  and  defer  to 
her  sister.  During  the  drive  Henrietta 
and  her  mother  exchanged  many  pleased 
glances  as  they  listened  to  the  merry  chatter 
and  the  frequent  laughter  that  drifted  back 
from  the  front  seat.  It  was  a  smiling 
Felix  Brand,  suave,  serene,  and  courtly 
of  manner,  who  helped  them  from  the 
machine  on  their  return  and  carried  Mrs. 
Marne  into  the  house. 

"Please  don't,"  he  said  as  they  protested 
their  enjoyment  of  the  ride  and  their 
sense  of  his  kindness.  "For  I  assure  you 
it  has  meant  a  great  deal  more  pleasure 
and  benefit  to  me  than  it  possibly  could 
to  you." 

"I  think  he  really  meant  that,"  said 
Henrietta  when  the  three  women,  alone 
again,  were  talking  over  what  Mrs.  Marne 
called  their  "little  escapade,"  "because 
when  he  came  he  seemed  so  disturbed  and 
depressed  and  by  the  time  we  got  back  he 
was  quite  himself  again.  I  think  it  was 
mainly  you,  Isabella,"  she  smiled  at  her 
sister,  "for  you  seemed  to  have  a  very 
stimulating  effect  on  him." 

"Oh,  I'm  willing  to  be  a  cocktail  for 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    57 

him  whenever  he  wants  to  Dring  his  auto 
over  here.  Never  mind,  mother,"  and  she 
kissed  one  finger  at  Mrs.  Marne  in  response 
to  that  lady's  shocked  "  IsabeUa !"  "  That's 
just  modern  symbolism,  you  know.  And 
the  ride  has  made  you  look  as  if  you'd 
had  one  yourself.  I'm  going  to  write  to 
Warren  that  I've  found  a  much  nicer  and 
handsomer  man  than  he  is  and  if  he  doesn't 
get  a  stronger  grip  on  my  heart  right 
quick  it's  likely  to  get  away  from  him." 

"Bella,  dear!  Don't  say  such  things!" 
admonished  her  mother  in  a  grieved  tone. 

Isabella  flew  to  her  side  and  patted  her 
cheek  and  kissed  her  brow.  "  There, 
there,  mother!  Don't  you  know  I'm  just 
funning?  Warren  is  the  best  man  in  the 
world,  even  if  he  hasn't  got  bee-youtiful, 
caressing  brown  eyes,  and  I  love  him 
awfully,  and  we're  going  to  be  married 
and  live  happily  forever  after.  But,  all 
the  same,  Felix  Brand  is  perfectly  lovely, 
and  you  think  so  too,  now,  don't  you, 
mother  dear!" 

"We  all  think  alike  about  Mr.  Brand, 
I'm  sure,"  she  answered. 

"Except  Billikins,"  amended  Henrietta, 


58       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

and  then  told  them  of  the  fox  terrier's 
disgraceful  behavior.  "It  seemed  so  queer 
for  him  to  act  that  way,"  she  added, 
"when  he's  always  so  friendly  toward 
visitors  and  so  effusive  that  he  usually 
has  to  be  put  out  of  the  room." 

"It  was  strange,"  said  Mrs.  Marne, 
"for  with  his  pleasant  voice  and  gentle 
manner  you  would  think  Mr.  Brand  would 
be  as  attractive  to  animals  as  he  certainly  is 
to  people.  And  he  must  be  as  kind  and 
sweet-natured  as  he  seems,  for  not  one  young 
man  in  a  thousand  would  have  taken  the 
trouble  he  did  to  give  three  forlorn  women 
a  little  pleasure." 

Henrietta  made  no  reply  as  she  laughed 
with  her  mother  at  the  lively  scolding 
Isabella  was  giving  to  the  dog,  but  her 
thoughts  were  busy  with  the  problem  of 
why  Felix  Brand  had  seemed  so  anxious 
for  them  to  go  with  him. 

Her  loyalty  to  her  employer  would  not 
let  her  throw  the  least  shade  upon  their 
enthusiastic  appreciation  of  his  courtesy 
and  kindness.  But  her  months  of  work 
at  his  side — she  had  been  his  secretary 
almost  a  year — had  given  her  an  intimate 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    59 

knowledge  of  his  character  and  of  his 
habits  of  thought  and  feeling. 

She  had  learned  that  his  habitual  mental 
attitude  was,  "What  is  there  in  this  for 
me?"  He  did  not  indeed  use  just  those 
words  or  give  such  crude  expression  to  his 
self-centeredness;  but  she  had  come  to 
know  that  personal  advantage  was  the 
usual  mainspring  of  his  actions.  Presently 
deciding  that  Isabella's  enlivening  effect 
upon  his  mood  had  inspired  his  desire  for 
their  company,  her  mind  went  on  to  busy 
itself  with  speculation  over  the  cause  for 
his  despondency  and  uneasiness. 

"I  believe  it  must  have  something  to 
do  with  that  Hugh  Gordon  he  mentioned, 
whoever  he  is,"  she  thought.  "For  he 
seemed  most  disturbed  when  speaking  of 
him.  Maybe  it's  some  relative  who  is 
giving  him  trouble — some  black  sheep  of 
his  family,  very  likely." 

She  walked  to  the  window  and  stood  there 
silently,  her  thoughts  hovering  around  this 
unknown  personality,  and  became  conscious 
of  the  upspringing  in  her  breast  of  a  feeling 
of  disapproval  and  even  of  enmity  toward 
the  man  because  of  the  trouble  he  seemed 


to  be  giving  to  the  employer  she  admired 
so  much  and  for  whose  appreciation  and 
unvarying  kindness  she  felt  so  much  grati- 
tude. 

Then  there  surged  over  her  a  wave  of 
discontent,  against  whose  threatened  on- 
slaught she  had  half  consciously  been 
doing  battle  ever  since  she  had  talked  with 
Felix  Brand  in  the  morning.  Xow  it  was 
upon  her.  How  monotonous  seemed  her 
life,  how  destitute  of  the  pleasures  that 
most  girls  had  as  their  right!  If  she  could 
only  use  for  her  own  enjoyment  some  of 
that  money  she  worked  so  hard  to  earn! 
But  that  everlasting  mortgage  on  their 
home  which  had  to  be  paid  off — how  the 
thought  of  it  irked  and  galled  when  she 
longed  to  travel,  buy  beautiful  clothes, 
go  to  the  theatre  and  the  opera,  have  young 
friends  and  ride  and  drive  and  play  golf 
and  dance  and  sing  with  them.  It  was  the 
playtime  of  life  and  she  was  having  to 
spend  it  in  work,  work,  work! 

"Oh,  there  isn't  anybod}T  who  would 
enjoj-  all  those  things  as  I  should,"  she 
thought,  "and  I  want  them  so!" 

She  turned  impatiently  from  the  window 


BILLIKINS  IS  FRIGHTENED    61 

and  her  glance  fell  upon  her  mother, 
smiling  gently  and  happily  as  she  lay  back 
in  her  easy  chair,  and  remorse  entered  her 
heart. 

"What  an  ungrateful  little  beast  I  am," 
she  stormed  at  herself,  "to  feel  like  that 
when  I  ought  to  be  thankful  I  can  earn 
money  enough  to  keep  mother  in  comfort! 
Was  it  because  Mr.  Brand  was  here  that 
I  felt  that  way?  Harry  Marne,  be  ashamed 
of  yourself!  Aren't  you  old  enough  to  be 
responsible  for  your  own  thoughts?" 

She  sat  down  beside  her  mother  and 
taking  her  hand  pressed  it  tenderly  against 
her  cheek. 


CHAPTER  V 
MKS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON 

IT  was  half  a  week  after  that  spring-like 
Sunday  when  Felix  Brand  motored  to 
his  secretary's  home  on  Staten  Island, 
and  a  feathery  pall,  white  as  forgiven  sins, 
was  sifting  down  from  the  heavens  upon 
all  the  eastern  seaboard.  In  a  town  within 
the  suburban  radius  of  Philadelphia  its 
mantle  of  purity  lay  almost  undisturbed 
upon  lawns  and  streets  and  vacant  lots. 
Two  women  were  looking  out  upon  the 
snow-covered  earth  and  snow-filled  sky 
from  the  side  window  of  a  cottage  near  the 
edge  of  the  town.  One,  small  and  gray- 
haired,  perhaps  looked  older  than  she  was 
because  of  the  pathetic  droop  of  her 
shoulders  and  the  worn,  patient  expression 
of  her  face.  But  lined  and  sad  though  her 
countenance  was,  it  told  of  a  sweet  and 
gentle  soul  and  it  was  lighted  now  with  a 
look  of  pleasure. 

"Just  look  at  it,  Penelope!"  she  exclaimed, 

(62) 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    63 

a  little  thrill  of  enthusiasm  in  her  voice. 
"I  never  saw  it  snow  harder,  or  look 
prettier!  Isn't  it  beautiful!" 

She  turned  a  pair  of  soft  brown  eyes  upon 
a  younger  woman  sitting  beside  her  in  a 
wheel  chair,  who  put  down  the  book  she 
had  been  reading,  and  sighed  as  she 
answered:  "Yes,  it  is  beautiful,  mother, 
very  beautiful.  But  when  I  look  at  it 
I  can't  help  thinking  how  long  it  will  be 
until  spring  comes  again  and  I  can  be  out 
in  the  yard  under  the  trees." 

The  mother  put  out  her  hand,  small  and 
once  of  the  shape  that  chirognomists  call 
"the  artistic  hand,"  but  now  wrinkled, 
bony  and  toil-hardened,  and  rested  it 
gently  for  a  moment  upon  the  mass  of 
dark,  waving  hair,  already  well-threaded 
with  gray,  that  crowned  the  other's  head. 
Her  face  filled  with  sympathy  but  her  voice 
broke  cheerfully  upon  the  silence: 

"Oh,  it  won't  be  long  now,  Penelope, 
and  not  a  bit  longer  because  of  this  beauti- 
ful storm!" 

The  figure  in  the  wheel  chair  bent  for- 
ward again  and  looked  out  upon  the  pearly 
whiteness  of  the  earth.  It  was  a  sad 


64       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

travesty  of  the  human  form,  undersized, 
humped  and  crooked.  But  it  bore  a  noble 
head  with  a  broad,  full  brow  and  a  strong, 
intellectual  face  that  had  in  it  something 
of  the  elder  woman's  sweetness  of  expres- 
sion. But  in  her  brown  eyes  the  other's 
softness  and  wistfulness  gave  place  to  a 
keener,  more  flashing  look  that  told  of  a 
high  and  soaring  spirit.  And  in  the  lines 
of  her  face  was  a  hint  of  possible  storminess, 
though  it  was  softened  by  an  expression 
of  self-mastery,  eloquent  of  many  an  inner 
battle  waged  and  won. 

The  window  from  which  they  looked 
commanded  one  side  of  their  own  wide 
yard,  a  vacant  block,  and  beyond  that  a 
cross-street.  The  snow  was  feathering- 
down  so  fast  that  it  gave  to  the  air  a  milky 
translucence  through  which  bulked  dimly 
an  occasional  traveler  on  the  other  thorough- 
fare. Penelope's  eyes  fixed  themselves 
upon  one  of  these  vague  shapes. 

"Look,  mother!"  she  exclaimed.  "Do 
you  see  that  man  just  turning  the  corner 
to  come  this  way?  It  looks  like  Felix!" 

"So  it  does!"  the  other  cried. 

They  were  both  silent  for  a  moment  as 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    65 

they  gazed  intently  at  the  dim  figure, 
gaining  definiteness  now  with  each  step 
toward  them.  "It  doesn't  walk  like  him," 
Penelope  commented,  her  face  already 
showing  that  she  knew  it  was  not  he.  But 
the  mother  hung  a  little  longer  to  her  hope. 
"No,  it  isn't  Felix,"  she  presently  acqui- 
esced, disappointment  evident  in  her  gentle 
tones.  "I  so  hoped  it  was,  at  first." 

With  a  firm,  rapid  stride  the  young  man 
was  coming  eagerly  up  the  street,  his  eyes 
upon  their  house.  "He  doesn't  walk  at 
all  like  Felix,"  Penelope  repeated  thought- 
fully as  his  figure  became  more  plainly 
visible  through  the  veiling  snow,  "but  it's 
curious  how  much  like  him  he  looks,  after 
all." 

"See,  Penelope!"  the  mother  exclaimed, 
reaching  out  to  grasp  her  daughter's  hand 
in  sudden  enthusiasm.  "See  how  he  comes 
out  of  the  snow  mist!  Isn't  it  just  like  a 
figure  in  a  dream  getting  plainer  and 
clearer,  and  more  like  life!" 

Penelope  pressed  her  mother's  hand  and 
smiled  up  at  her  fondly.  "Just  like  you, 
mother,  to  make  something  pretty  out  of 
a  disappointment!" 


66       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

They  gazed  at  the  advancing  figure  with 
renewed  interest  and  saw  that  the  man, 
with  slightly  slackened  pace,  seemed  to  be 
closely  observing  their  house  and  yard. 
What  he  saw  was  a  one-story  red  cottage, 
needing  paint,  its  green  window  shutters 
looking  old  and  somewhat  dilapidated,  its 
yard,  of  ample  size  and  dotted  with  trees 
and  shrubbery,  surrounded  by  a  wooden 
fence  in  whose  palings  were  occasional 
breaks  and  patches.  It  was  a  common- 
place object  in  an  ordinary  winter  scene, 
but  he  seemed  to  feel  in  it  the  deepest 
interest.  There  was  even  a  frown  on  his 
brow  as  his  alert  glance  rested  on  a  broken 
pane  in  the  kitchen  window. 

"It  has  been  a  long  time  since  Felix 
was  here — six  months,  hasn't  it,  mother?" 
said  Penelope,  leaning  back  wearily  again 
as  the  stranger  passed  from  her  range  of 
vision. 

"  Hardly  so  long  as  that,  dear.  It  was 
last  fall.  But,  of  course,  he  is  very  busy. 
He  hasn't  the  tune  to  travel  around  now 
and  go  visiting,  even  over  here  to  see  us, 
that  he  used  to  have,  before  he  had  begun 
to  be  so  successful.  We  mustn't  expect 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    67 

too  much."  As  she  spoke,  her  gentle  tones 
as  full  of  indulgence  and  excuse  as  her 
words,  she  moved  to  the  front  window 
and  sought  the  figure  of  the  stranger,  now 
striding  along  the  snow-covered  sidewalk 
in  front  of  her  own  yard. 

"Penelope!  He's  coming  here!"  she 
exclaimed,  starting  back  and  dropping  the 
muslin  curtain  she  had  pushed  aside.  "He's 
turning  in  at  our  gate!  He  does  look  like 
Felix— a  little.  Who  can  it  be!" 

Penelope  bent  forward  to  peer  through 
the  curtains  and  saw  the  man  mounting 
the  steps  to  their  little  veranda  and  stamp- 
ing the  snow  from  his  feet.  Instantly 
she  wheeled  her  chair  about  and  sped  it 
into  the  adjoining  room  as  her  mother 
opened  the  door  to  their  visitor. 

"You  are  Mrs.  Brand,  I  think?  Felix 
Brand's  mother?"  he  said.  "I  am  a  friend 
of  his — my  name  is  Hugh  Gordon — and  as 
I  was  coming  to  Philadelphia  I  promised 
him  I  would  run  out  here  and  see  you." 

As  they  entered  the  living  room  his 
keen,  dark  eyes  swept  it  alertly,  as  they  had 
the  exterior  of  the  house.  A  shade  of 
disappointment  crossed  his  face. 


68       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Your  daughter?"  he  asked  abruptly. 
"May  I  not  see  her,  too?" 

Mrs.  Brand  hesitated.  The  shyness  of 
her  girlhood  years  still  lingered  in  her 
manner  when  in  the  presence  of  strangers, 
and  she  glanced  at  her  visitor,  then  at  the 
floor,  and  her  hands  fluttered  about  her 
lap.  Gordon's  face  and  eyes  softened  as 
he  looked  at  her.  There  was  something 
very  sweet  and  appealing  in  the  gentle 
diffidence  of  this  little,  plain,  elderly  woman. 

"Penelope  doesn't  often  see  people- 
anyone,  and  she  is  very  unwilling  to  meet 
strangers.  Perhaps  Felix  told  you — you 
know " 

"Yes,  I  know.  I  understand  how  she 
feels,  but  I  want  very  much  to  see  her. 
I  know  Felix  well,  and  I  know  a  good  deal 
about  her,  enough  to  make  me  honor  and 
admire  her  very  much.  Won't  you  tell 
her,  please,  that  I  came  out  here  particu- 
larly to  see  you  and  her,  and  that  I  shall  be 
much  disappointed  if  I  have  to  go  back 
without  meeting  both  of  you?" 

Penelope  soon  returned  with  her  mother 
and  both  had  many  questions  to  ask 
concerning  Felix.  Was  he  well?  Was  he 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    69 

working  harder  than  he  ought?  Was  his 
new  apartment  very  beautiful?  Had  Mr. 
Gordon  seen  the  plans  for  the  new  monu- 
ment with  which  he  had  won  in  the  national 
competition? 

He  used  to  send  them  photographs, 
Penelope  said,  but  lately  they  knew  little 
about  his  work  unless  they  saw  pictures  of 
it  in  the  newspapers. 

But,  indeed,  they  didn't  expect  so  much 
attention  from  him  now,  her  mother  quickly 
added,  for  as  his  work  increased  and  became 
of  so  much  importance  they  understood 
how  necessary  it  was  for  him  to  give  it  all 
his  time  and  thought. 

"It  would  really  be  selfish,"  she  went  on, 
"as  I  sometimes  tell  Penelope,  to  want 
him  to  spend  time  on  us,  writing  long 
letters,  or  coming  over  here,  when  we  know 
that  his  success  depends  upon  his  devoting 
all  his  energies  to  his  work." 

Penelope,  silent  and  gazing  out  of  the 
window,  was  conscious  of  Gordon's  quick 
glance  at  her,  and  was  conscious  too  of  the 
appeal  in  her  mother's  wistful  brown  eyes, 
which  she  felt  were  turned  upon  her. 
So  many  years  these  two  had  passed  in 


intimate  companionship  and  in  loving  min- 
istration on  one  side  and  utter  dependence 
on  the  other,  that  spoken  word  was  scarcely 
needed  between  them  to  make  known  the 
mood  of  each  to  the  other. 

In  immediate  response  she  turned,  with 
a  smile  that  lighted  up  her  controlled, 
intellectual  face,  and  said: 

"Of  course,  we  quite  understand  how 
occupied  Felix  is  all  the  time,  but  that 
doesn't  keep  us  from  liking  to  know  about 
him.  So  your  visit,  Mr.  Gordon,  is  quite 
a  godsend,  and  you  mustn't  be  surprised 
that  we  ask  you  so  many  questions  about 
Felix  and  want  to  know  all  about  him 
and  what  he  is  doing." 

Her  voice  was  low,  with  rich  notes  in  it, 
and  her  manner  quite  without  self-con- 
sciousness. Notwithstanding  her  deform- 
ity and  her  secluded  life,  she  betrayed 
neither  shyness  nor  embarrassment.  In 
both  manner  and  speech  was  the  poise  that 
is  usually  the  result  of  much  association 
with  the  world. 

"Yes,"  Gordon  was  assenting,  "Felix 
has  many  irons  in  the  fire,  and  he  is  planning 
to  have  more.  But  he  thinks  of  you  both, 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    71 

and  you  would  be  surprised  to  learn  how 
much  I  know  of  you — through  him."  He 
rose  and  as  he  moved  across  the  room  to 
Penelope's  chair  he  continued:  "You,  I 
know,  Miss  Brand,  love  the  sunshine  and 
the  out-of-doors."  He  hesitated  a  moment 
and  then  went  on,  pouring  out  his  words 
with  a  sort  of  abrupt  eagerness: 

"But  I  don't  want  to  call  you  'Miss 
Brand!'  It  doesn't  seem  as  if  I  were 
talking  to  you.  I  feel  as  if  I  had  known 
you  so  long  that  I  want  to  call  you  'Pe- 
nelope,' as  Felix  does.  Will  you  let  me? 
You  won't  mind  if  I  do?  Oh,  thank  you! 
You  are  very  kind  to  me,  for  I  realize  what 
a  stranger  I  must  seem  to  you,  although  I 
feel  as  if  I  had  known  you  both  such  a 
long  time.  Well,  then,  Penelope,"  and  he 
smiled  and  nodded  at  her,  as  he  crossed 
the  room  to  the  front  window  and  drew 
back  the  curtain,  "how  would  you  like  to 
have  one  end  of  this  porch  enclosed  with 
glass,  so  that  you  could  sit  out  there  with 
your  wraps  on,  all  winter,  even  on  days 
like  this,  and  feel  almost  as  if  you  were  out 
of  doors?  It  wouldn't  seem  Quite  so  shut 
in  as  the  house,  would  it?" 


72       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

She  leaned  back  with  a  sigh  and  then 
smiled.  "Yes,  it  would  be  pleasant.  But 
it  is  now  some  years  since  I  quit  wishing 
for  the  things  I  can't  have." 

"Ah,  but  you're  going  to  have  this/' 
he  exclaimed,  his  face  beaming.  "Felix 
is  preparing  a  little  surprise  for  you,  but 
he  gave  me  permission  to  tell  you  about 
it." 

The  expression  upon  the  faces  of  both 
women  and  their  little  exclamations  told 
Gordon,  as  he  glanced  from  one  to  the 
other,  that  their  surprise  was  as  great  as 
their  pleasure. 

"Felix  is  going  to  have  it  done  for  you," 
he  went  on,  "as  soon  as  he  returns.  I 
forgot  to  tell  you,  and  perhaps,  as  he  went 
away  rather  unexpectedly,  he  didn't  write 
you,  that  he  was  called  out  of  the  city  a 
few  days  ago  on  pressing  business.  I  saw 
him  when  he  was  leaving  and  I  know  you 
may  expect  to  hear  from  him  about  the 
porch  as  soon  as  he  returns.  I'll  tell  him 
how  pleased  you  are  about  it." 

They  gave  him  messages  of  gratitude 
and  love  and  the  three  of  them  discussed 
the  little  improvement  with  the  intimacy 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    73 

of  old  friends.  Several  books,  one  of  them 
still  open  at  the  page  where  Penelope  had 
been  reading,  were  on  a  table  beside  the 
window.  Gordon  took  them  up  one  by 
one  and  ran  over  their  titles.  "Ah, 
poetry — and  fiction — and  biography — how 
catholic  your  interests  are,  Penelope!  But 
I  knew  that  already.  Sociology,  too. 
Yes,  I  knew  that  is  your  favorite  study. 
It  is  mine,  too,  but  I  haven't  had  as  much 
time  yet  to  read  along  that  line  as  I  would 
like.  What  have  you  lately  read  on  that 
subject?" 

She  told  him  of  some  of  the  recent  books 
that  had  interested  her  most  and  mentioned 
the  titles  of  others  that  she  thought  would 
be  worth  while. 

"After  you  read  them,"  he  said,  in  his 
quick,  decisive  way,  "I'd  like  very  much 
to  know  what  you  think  of  them." 

"I'd  be  glad  to  talk  them  over  with 
you,  but  it's  not  likely  I  can  have  the 
opportunity  of  reading  them  very  soon. 
I  take  books  from  the  town  library,  and 
so  many  people  always  want  the  new  ones 
that  sometimes  my  turn  is  a  long  time 
coming." 


74       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

He  was  making  a  note  of  their  titles. 
"I'll  tell  Felix  you're  interested  in  them," 
he  rejoined  casually,  "and  I'm  sure  he'll 
send  them  to  you." 

Wonderment  filled  the  minds  of  both 
mother  and  daughter  and  showed  in  their 
faces. 

"You  and  my  brother  must  be  great 
friends,"  Penelope  hastened  to  say,  "al- 
though you  seem  to  be  so  different  from 
him.  You  resemble  him  a  little — yes, 
a  good  deal,  physically,  but  in  manner, 
expression  and,  I  should  think,  in  mind 
and  temperament  and  character,  you  must 
be  very  different.  But  perhaps  that  only 
makes  you  the  better  friends.  You  see," 
she  went  on,  smiling  frankly,  "mother  and 
I  are  already  talking  with  you  as  if  we  knew 
you  as  well  as  Felix  does." 

"I  hope  that  you  will,  and  that  very 
soon,"  he  responded,  and  his  manner  re- 
minded her  for  a  fleeting  instant  of  the 
winning  deference,  the  slightly  ceremonious 
politeness,  of  her  brother's  habitual  de- 
meanor. 

"That  was  just  a  little  like  Felix,"  she 
thought.  "Perhaps  he  has  been  with 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    75 

Felix  so  much  that  he  has  unconsciously 
caught  something  of  his  manner.  Felix 
has  a  very  pleasing  manner,  but — I  like 
this  man's  better." 

"I  don't  think  Mr.  Gordon  so  very 
unlike  Felix,"  her  mother  was  saying, 
"  that  is,  unlike  Felix  used  to  be.  Naturally, 
he  has  changed  a  good  deal  of  late  years. 
It's  to  be  expected  that  a  young  man  will 
change  as  he  grows  up  and  enters  upon  his 
life's  work.  But  Mr.  Gordon  looks  more 
as  I  used  to  think  Felix  would  when  he 
grew  up,  and  something  as  my  husband 
did  when  we  were  married,  but  still  more — " 
she  paused,  searching  his  countenance  with 
puzzled  eyes.  He  started  a  little,  as  if 
pulling  himself  together. 

"Now  I  know,"  she  exclaimed.  "Penel- 
ope, Mr.  Gordon  looks  like  your  Grand- 
father Brand!  If  you  wore  your  hair 
longer,  Mr.  Gordon,  and  had  no  mustache, 
you'd  look  very  like  an  old  picture  I  have 
of  him  when  he  was  young.  He  was  such 
a  good  man  and  I  admired  and  respected 
him  so  much!  I  used  to  hope,  when  Felix 
was  a  little  boy,  that  he  would  grow  up 
to  be  like  his  grandfather." 


76       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"He  has  grown  up  to  be  a  very  able 
man,"  Gordon  responded  gravely.  "He 
has  opened  the  way  toward  being  a  famous 
one,  and  he  has  the  capacity  to  go  far  in  it. 
He  has  much  more  talent  than  I." 

"Are  you  an  architect,  too?"  asked  Mrs. 
Brand. 

"No,  I  have  not  done  anything,  yet. 
But  it  is  only  now  becoming  possible  for 
me  to  do  anything  of  consequence."  His 
manner  and  expression  grew  suddenly  even 
more  earnest  and  serious.  "And  there  is 
so  much  that  I  want  to  do,  that  needs 
to  be  done,  so  much  that  urges  one  to  action, 
if  he  feels  his  responsibility  toward  others." 

Mrs.  Brand  was  looking  at  him  with 
startled,  swimming  eyes.  "Oh,  you  are 
so  like  Father  Brand!"  she  exclaimed. 
"How  often  have  I  heard  him  speak  in 
just  that  way!  He  was  rather  a  stern 
man,  because  he  wanted  to  hold  people 
to  a  high  standard.  But  he  fairly  burned 
to  do  good  in  th'e  world  and  make  it  better. 
I  used  to  hope,  when  Felix  was  a  little 
boy,  that  he'd  have  the  same  kind  of 
spirit  when  he  became  a  man." 

She  stopped  and  her  worn  face  flushed 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON    77 

at  the  thought  that  she  had  almost  spoken 
slightingly  of  her  son,  had  at  least  hinted 
disappointment  in  him.  She  fidgeted  with 
embarrassment  as  silence  fell  upon  them 
and  she  felt  Gordon's  eyes  upon  her.  She 
could  not  resist  his  steady  gaze,  and  as  her 
eyes  met  his  the  look  in  them  stirred  her 
mother-heart  to  its  depths  and  set  her 
to  trembling.  She  saw  in  it  wistfulness 
and  loneliness  and  felt  behind  it  the  per- 
sistent heart-hunger  of  the  grown  man  for 
the  mother  in  woman,  for  maternal  under- 
standing and  solicitude  and  affection. 

"I  knew  right  away,"  she  said  afterward 
to  Penelope,  "that  he'd  never  known  a 
mother's  love  and  that  he  was  homesick 
for  it  and  it  made  my  heart  warm  toward 
him  more  than  ever.  He  looks  so  young, 
even  younger  than  Felix,  and  that  minute 
he  seemed  as  if  he  were  just  a  boy." 

"I  hope  you  will  let  me  come  again," 
said  Gordon  as  he  bade  them  good-by. 
He  took  Mrs.  Brand's  toil-worn  hand  in 
both  of  his  and  with  gravely  earnest  face 
looked  down  into  hers  as  he  went  on: 
"And  if  you  should  hear — if  I  should  do 
anything  that  seems — well,  not  friendly, 


78       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

toward  Felix,  I  hope  you  will  try  to  believe 
that  I  am  not  doing  it  to  injure  him,  but 
because  it  seems  to  me  right  and  because 
I  truly  think  it  for  his  good." 

Mrs.  Brand  was  still  trembling  and  she 
felt  strangely  moved.  But  her  usual  shy- 
ness was  all  gone  and  she  did  not  even 
notice  that  she  was  finding  it  easy  to  talk 
with  this  stranger,  easier,  indeed,  than  it 
had  been,  of  late  years,  to  talk  with  Felix. 
Her  heart  swelled  and  throbbed  with  yearn- 
ing over  him. 

"I  am  quite  sure,"  she  said,  "that  you 
will  not  do  anything  unless  you  are  con- 
vinced that  it  is  right  and  for  the  best. 
No  matter  how  it  may  seem  to  others,  I 
shall  know  that  you  expect  good  to  come 
of  it." 

"Thank  you!"  His  voice  was  low  and 
it  shook  a  little.  He  bent  over  her  hand 
and  raised  it  to  his  lips.  "If  I  had  a 
mother  I  should  want  her  to  be  just  like 
you!  Will  you  try  to  think  of  me,  some- 
times, no  matter  what  I  do,  as  being  moved, 
perhaps,  by  the  same  spirit,  at  least  the 
same  kind  of  spirit,  as  that  of — of  Felix's 
and  Penelope's  grandfather?" 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON     79 

Her  patient  face  and  her  brown  eyes 
glowed  with  the  emotions  that  thrilled  and 
fluttered  in  her  heart.  Belief  in  him,  the 
sudden,  sweet  intimacy  into  which  their 
brief  acquaintance  had  flowered,  his  seem- 
ing need  of  her,  and  her  own  ardent  wish  to 
respond  with  all  her  mother-wealth,  filled 
her  breast  with  new,  strange  life  and 
stirred  her  imagination. 

"I  shall  think  of  you,"  she  answered  with 
sweet  earnestness,  "as  if  you  were  the  boy 
— a  man — I  don't  know  how  to  say  just 
what  I  mean,  but  perhaps  you'll  under- 
stand— as  if  you  were  the  man  who  had 
grown  up  out  of  the  dreams  I  used  to  have 
about  my  boy. 

"Don't  think,"  she  added  hastily,  "that 
I'm  displeased  or  dissatisfied  with  Felix, 
because  I'm  not,  though  what  I've  said 
might  give  that  impression.  He  is  a  good 
son  and  I  am  proud  and  glad  to  be  his 
mother.  But  a  mother  has  so  many  dreams 
about  a  son  when  he  is  little  that  no  boy 
could  possibly  fulfill  all  of  them.  He  must 
follow  his  own  bent,  and  the  other  things 
she  has  dreamed  for  him  must  be  left  behind. 
So  I'll  just  feel  as  if,  in  some  mysterious 


way,  those  dreams  had  come  alive  in  you. 
And — oh,  Penelope!  Do  you  remember 
what  I  said  a  little  while  ago,  when  we  saw 
Mr.  Gordon  coming  toward  us  out  of  the 
storm,  that  it  was  just  like  someone  taking 
form  and  shape  in  a  dream?  I'll  think  of 
you  as  my  dream  son,  Mr.  Gordon — Hugh!" 

Impulsively  he  seized  her  hand  again  and 
held  it  closely  clasped  in  both  of  his.  "Will 
you  do  that?  Will  you  think  of  me  in 
that  way?" 

Penelope,  in  her  wheel  chair  beside  them, 
fidgeted  her  weak,  misshapen  body.  Her 
nerves  were  tense  with  an  excitement  which 
she  knew  was  not  all  due  merely  to  an 
unexpected  call  from  a  stranger.  Unaccus- 
tomed emotions,  strong  but  undefined,  were 
rilling  her  breast  and  tugging  at  her  heart. 
To  her  sharpened  perception  it  seemed 
almost  as  if  something  uncanny  were  hover- 
ing in  the  room.  She  shivered  and  leaned 
back  wearily.  What  spell  was  coming  over 
them?  Were  those  two  beside  her,  stran- 
gers until  an  hour  ago,  about  to  sink 
sobbing  into  each  other's  arms?  And  was 
she,  Penelope,  the  calm  and  self-mastered, 
about  to  shriek  hysterically? 


MRS.  BRAND'S  DREAM  SON     81 

"How  ghostly  you  two  are  becoming," 
she  exclaimed,  with  an  effort  at  vivacity, 
"with  your  dreams  and  your  spirits!  You 
make  me  afraid  that  Mr.  Gordon,  substan- 
tial as  he  looks,  will  melt  away  into  thin 
air  before  our  very  eyes!" 

"We  are  getting  wrought  up,  aren't  we?" 
Gordon  assented  as  he  turned  to  her. 
"And  you  are  pale,  Penelope!  I  hope  I 
haven't  tired  you  too  much.  Seeing  you 
both,  and  your  being  so  kind,  have  meant 
a  lot  to  me,  more  than  you  can  guess.  And 
if  your  mother  is  going  to  be  my  dream 
mother,  Penelope,  you'll  be  my  dream 
sister,  won't  you?" 

He  smiled  as  he  said  this,  then  all  three 
laughed  a  little,  more  to  lessen  the  tension 
which  all  of  them  felt  than  because  they 
were  amused,  and  presently  the  two  women 
were  alone  again.  Afterward,  as  they 
talked  over  all  the  incidents  of  the  afternoon, 
they  recalled  that  it  was  the  only  time 
during  his  long  call  that  Gordon  had 
laughed,  and  they  wondered  that  a  young 
man  who  seemed  so  full  of  vigor  and  life 
should  have  so  serious  a  demeanor. 


CHAPTER  VI 
WHO  is  HUGH  GORDON? 

FELIX  BRAND  did  not  appear  at 
his  office  the  next  day  after  his  call 
at  the  home  of  his  secretary,  and  she 
inferred  that  he  had  gone  on  the  journey 
of  which  he  had  spoken.  The  week  went 
by  and  he  did  not  return.  It  was  longer 
than  any  previous  absence  had  been,  but 
Henrietta,  being  prepared  for  it,  was  able 
to  keep  his  affairs  in  order.  Nevertheless, 
as  the  days  slipped  by  and  no  message 
came  from  him,  she  began  to  feel  solicitous. 
On  Monday  and  Tuesday  of  the  next  week, 
Mildred  Annister  made  apprehensive  in- 
quiry concerning  him  over  the  telephone. 
On  Wednesday,  big  headlines  in  all  the 
newspapers  told  a  city  not  yet  so  cynical 
but  that  it  could  read  the  news  with  sur- 
prise, that  Felix  Brand,  its  successful  and 
promising  young  architect,  was  charged 
with  having  won  his  appointment  upon  the 

(82) 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON       83 

municipal  art  commission  by  means  of 
bribery. 

An  investigating  committee  had  been 
secretly  feeling  about  in  another  city  depart- 
ment with  no  thought  of  uncovering  corrup- 
tion, or  even  of  looking  for  it,  in  a  body  of 
city  servants  whose  character,  occupations 
and  ideals  lifted  them  so  far  above  suspicion. 

Then  they  received  an  intimation  that 
even  there  all  was  not  as  pure  as  it  might 
be  and  had  called  before  them  the  man 
from  whom  the  hint  had  come.  Guided 
by  his  information  they  had  followed  a 
devious  trail,  apparently  quite  clean  at 
first,  but  showing  undoubted  befoulment  as 
they  neared  its  source.  And  finally  they 
had  traced  it  to  its  beginnings  in  an  unsav- 
ory local  politician,  Flaherty  by  name,  who 
was  powerful  in  his  own  district  and  there- 
fore had  influence  in  his  party  organiza- 
tion. And  Flaherty,  they  had  discovered, 
had  been  well  rewarded  for  efficient  work 
in  engineering  the  matter  and  inspiring 
those  above  him  to  suggest  and  secure  the 
appointment. 

Scarcely  had  Henrietta  reached  her  office 
on  the  morning  of  this  publication  when 


84       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Mildred  Annister  rushed  in,  anxious,  excited 
and  indignant. 

"Harry,  dear,  have  you  heard  from  him? 
Do  you  know  where  he  is?  I  know  he  would 
write  to  me,  if  he  could  write  at  all,  before 
he  would  to  any  one  else,  but,  oh,  do  tell 
me  if  you  know  whether  anything  has 
happened  to  him!" 

"No,  Mildred,  dear,  I  don't  suppose  I 
know  much,  if  any,  more  than  you  do. 
But  certainly  nothing  serious  could  have 
happened  or  some  message  would  have 
been  sent  here." 

"You're  not  keeping  anything  from  me?" 
the  girl  demanded,  staring  at  Henrietta 
with  wild,  suspicious  eyes.  "Oh,  Harry, 
you  don't  know  what  all  this  means  to  me! 
I've  hardly  slept  for  the  last  two  nights! 
You  must  tell  me  everything!  Oh,  I  know 
you  are  his  confidential  secretary  and  you 
must  not  betray  his  trust,  but — you  don't 
know — I've  never  told  you — I'm  almost  the 
same  as  his  wife.  We're  engaged,  and  we'd 
have  been  married  before  this  but  for  some 
notion  father  has.  So  I've  the  right  to 
know,  Harry — you  must  tell  me  all  you 
can!" 


"  HARRY,  DEAR,  HAVE  You  HEARD  FROM  HIM!  " 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON       85 

Henrietta  bent  toward  the  girl  sympathet- 
ically. "I  don't  think  you  need  to  be  so 
anxious,"  she  said  reassuringly,  although 
her  own  heart  misgave  her.  "I'm  so  glad 
to  know  about  your  happiness,"  she  went 
on,  stroking  Mildred's  clenched  hand  where 
it  lay  upon  her  desk,  "and  I'm  sure  this 
will  come  out  all  right.  He  went  away 
very  suddenly.  Did — did  you  know  that 
he  was  going?" 

Mildred  nodded  and  wiped  some  hyster- 
ical tears  from  her  eyes.  It  was  a  moment 
before  she  could  control  her  voice:  "Yes. 
He  had  promised  to  come  to  our  house  on 
Sunday  evening.  But  instead  he  sent  me  a 
note — the  dearest  little  letter — "  and  her 
hand  involuntarily  moved  to  her  breast  as 
she  paused  and  smiled.  Her  listener  mar- 
veled at  the  light  that  played  over  her 
countenance  for  a  moment.  "He  said  he 
had  been  suddenly  called  out  of  the  city  and 
might  be  away  several  days,  but  would  see 
me  again  as  soon  as  he  could  get  back,  and 
in  the  meantime  I  must  not  be  anxious. 
But  I  can't  help  it,  Harry!  I'm  wild  with 
anxiety!  Oh,  if  anything  should  happen 
to  him  I  couldn't  bear  it — I  couldn't  live!" 


86       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"There,  there,  dear,  don't  be  so  alarmed. 
Calm  yourself  and  I'll  tell  you  all  I  know." 
Mildred  was  hysterically  weeping  and  Hen- 
rietta moved  to  her  side  and  with  an  arm 
about  her  shoulders  soothed  her  and  went 
on: 

"Sunday  morning  he  motored  over  to 
my  house  to  tell  me  that  he  might  have  to 
be  out  of  the  city  for  a  few  days  and  to  give 
me  some  directions  about  matters  here  in 
case  he  should  have  to  go.  He  said  he 
didn't  know  how  long  he  would  be  gone  but 
hoped  he  would  be  back  inside  of  a  week." 

"Sunday — then  you  saw  him  after  I  did. 
Did  he  seem  well?  Was  he  all  right?" 

"Yes,  except  that  he  looked  anxious  and 
disturbed." 

"Oh,  I  knew  there  was  something  wrong! 
Why  didn't  he  come  to  me  and  tell  me  all 
about  it!  I  would  have  comforted  him! 
I'd  have  done  anything  for  him — I'd  have 
gone  at  once  and  been  married,  whatever 
father  might  say,  if  he  had  wanted  me  to!" 

"I  don't  think  it  could  have  been  any- 
thing very  serious,  dear,  nothing  more  than 
just  a  temporary  depression  of  spirits, 
because — well,  you  know  what  a  merry 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON       87 

little  piece  my  sister  is  and  how  she  jokes 
and  laughs  and  says  nonsensical  things  until 
you  can't  help  being  cheered  up  and  laugh- 
ing, too.  She  seemed  to  amuse  Mr.  Brand 
and  he  was  very  kind  and  took  us  all  for  a 
ride  in  his  auto.  And,  oh,  Mildred,  you 
should  have  seen  how  lovely  he  was  with 
my  poor,  frail  mother !  He  insisted  that  she 
must  go,  that  it  would  do  her  good,  and  he 
carried  her  in  his  arms  out  to  the  auto  and 
back,  and  was  as  tender  and  careful  with 
her  as  a  son  could  have  been!" 

"How  like  him!"  the  girl  beamed.  "He 
is  so  good  and  kind!  Harry,  there  isn't 
another  man  like  him  in  this  whole  world! 
It  would  kill  me  to  lose  him!" 

"We  had  a  delightful  ride  and  Mr.  Brand 
seemed  to  enjoy  Bella's  merry  talk.  She 
sat  with  him,  and  when  we  came  back  and 
he  returned  to  the  city  he  was  looking  quite 
himself  again." 

"Oh!"  said  Mildred,  drawing  back  and 
looking  at  Henrietta  with  narrowing  eyes. 
She  was  too  absorbed  in  her  own  intense 
emotions  to  perceive  the  embarrassment 
which  suddenly  gripped  her  companion. 
Henrietta,  wildly  groping  about  in  her  own 


mind  for  something  to  say  which  would 
relieve  the  momentary  strain,  chanced  upon 
what  her  employer  had  said  about  Hugh 
Gordon  and  her  own  subsequent  suspicions, 
which  had  been  made  sharper  by  the  charges 
in  the  morning  newspapers. 

"Mildred,  dear!"  she  exclaimed.  "Has 
Mr.  Brand  ever  said  anything  to  you  about 
a  man  called  Hugh  Gordon?" 

"Hugh  Gordon!"  The  girl  straightened 
up,  her  color  rising  and  her  eyes  flashing 
with  indignation.  "Why,  he's  that  dread- 
ful creature  who  is  responsible  for  all  that 
horrid  mess  in  the  papers  this  morning, 
isn't  he? 

"The  committee's  report  says  that  he 
gave  them  their  first  information  and  told 
them  how  to  get  the  rest  of  it." 

"Horrid  creature!  I  know  it's  all  a  mess 
of  lies!  No,  I  never  heard  of  him  before. 
Why  do  you  ask?  Do  you  know  anything 
about  him?  Did  Felix  ever  speak  of  him  to 
you?" 

"Only  once — last  Sunday,"  Henrietta 
hesitated. 

"What  was  it?"  the  other  demanded. 
"What  did  he  say?  Oh,  I  knew  you  were 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON       89 

keeping  something  from  me!  Tell  me, 
Harry!" 

"Truly,  dear,  it  wasn't  anything  of  any 
consequence.  It  wasn't  about  himself,  or 
his  business,  so  I  suppose  it's  all  right  for 
me  to  tell  you.  He  only  asked  me,  if  any 
letters  should  come  signed  'Hugh  Gordon/ 
not  to  read  them  but  to  put  them  aside  for 
him  when  he  should  return,  because  this 
man  was  likely  to  write  confidentially  about 
his  own  affairs.  That's  all  Mr.  Brand  ever 
said  to  me  about  him — the  only  time  he's 
ever  mentioned  the  man's  name.  But  I 
thought  maybe — it  was  just  my  own  con- 
jecture, you  know — that  maybe  this  Gordon 
is  some  dissipated  relative,  some  black 
sheep  of  his  family,  whom  Mr.  Brand  is 
trying  to  help." 

"Oh,  I  see  through  it  all!  It's  as  plain 
as  day !"  cried  Mildred  impetuously.  "  This 
Gordon  is  a  blackmailer  who  is  trying  to 
force  money  from  Felix!  I  knew  all  the 
time  there  wasn't  a  word  of  truth  in  that 
disgusting  story!  Felix  has  been  helping 
him — perhaps  he's  a  cousin,  or  something, 
and  he  has  demanded  more  and  more 
money,  and  Felix  has  refused,  and  now  in 


90       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

revenge  he  has  done  this!  And  he's  got 
Felix  shut  up  somewhere  to  make  him  give 
in!  That's  why  I  haven't  heard  from  him! 
Oh,  it's  perfectly  plain!  The  thing  to  do 
now  is  to  find  this  horrible  Hugh  Gordon 
and  make  him  tell  where  Felix  is!" 

The  office  boy  entered  to  say  that  some 
reporters  wanted  to  see  Mr.  Brand's  secre- 
tary. Henrietta  was  about  to  send  back 
the  message  that  as  she  knew  nothing  what- 
ever of  any  consequence  it  was  not  worth 
while  for  her  to  see  them,  when  Miss 
Annister  interposed. 

"No,  Harry,  let  them  come  in,"  she  said. 
"Perhaps  they  will  know  something  that 
we  don't." 

While  the  reporters  questioned  Henrietta 
they  stole  many  a  covert  glance  at  Mildred 
Annister,  who  sat  beside  her,  dignified  and 
beautiful,  her  cheeks  glowing  and  eyes 
brilliant  with  excitement,  listening  with 
intense  interest. 

Henrietta  soon  told  them  the  little  that 
she  knew  about  the  matter.  Mildred 
waited  until  they  had  asked  all  the  questions 
they  could  think  of  and  then,  leaning  for- 
ward in  her  absorption  and  gazing  intently 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON        91 

at  one  of  the  group,  she  said:  "Now  tell 
us  all  that  you  know  about  this  Hugh 
Gordon.  I  want  to  know  all  you  can  tell 
me,  because  I  have  a  theory  about  him." 

Her  intensity  and  eagerness  roused  the 
hope  that  perhaps  here  they  might  find 
something  with  which  to  embellish  a  story 
in  which,  so  far,  they  had  uncovered  little 
to  add  to  that  of  yesterday.  But  first  they 
must  know  who  this  lovely  girl  was. 

"You  are  a  relative  of  Mr.  Brand?"  one 
of  them  hazarded. 

"I  am  Mildred  Annister,  Dr.  Philip 
Annister's  daughter,  and  I  am  Felix  Brand's 
promised  wife." 

The  instant  ripple  of  interest  among  the 
reporters  caused  Mildred  to  shrink  back 
in  sudden  self-consciousness,  her  face 
scarlet. 

"But  please  don't  put  that  in  the  papers," 
she  went  on.  "It's  of  no  interest  to  any- 
body but  us,  and  we  don't  want  the  engage- 
ment announced  yet.  I  told  you  so  you 
would  understand  how  much  right  I  have 
to  be  interested.  I  am  perfectly  sure  this 
dreadful  creature,  Hugh  Gordon,  is  at  the 
bottom  of  the  whole  business,  that  these 


92       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

charges  in  the  papers  this  morning  are 
nothing  but  revenge  for  his  failure  to  black- 
mail Mr.  Brand,  and  it  is  just  as  certain  as 
can  be  that  he  has  got  Mr.  Brand  impris- 
oned somewhere,  maybe  drugged,  and  the 
thing  for  you  to  do  now  is  to  find  this 
Gordon  and  make  him  tell  where  Felix  is. 
Oh,  please  do!"  she  ended,  with  a  sudden 
drop  in  her  manner,  her  voice  choking. 

Seasoned  news  gatherers  though  they  were 
they  could  not  repress  all  sign  of  the  grati- 
fication they  felt  at  her  words.  They  loosed 
a  battery  of  questions  upon  the  two  young 
women,  but  soon  discovered  upon  what  a 
slender  basis  Miss  Annister  had  based  her 
theory. 

They  could  tell  her  nothing  whatever 
about  the  mysterious  Hugh  Gordon.  But 
they  promised  to  follow  her  clue  and  to 
hunt  him  down  if  he  could  be  found.  They 
went  away  well  pleased,  for  even  if  this 
suggestion  should  not  lead  to  anything  of 
consequence  they  had  enough  already  to 
warrant  "scare  heads"  over  tomorrow's 
story  and  to  furnish  a  narrative  of  even 
more  " human  interest"  than  the  one  set 
forth  that  morning, 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON        93 

Mildred  Annister  opened  the  paper  the 
next  morning  with  the  greatest  eagerness 
and  expectation.  But  she  sank  back  in 
horrified  dismay  as  she  saw  the  headlines. 
"I  told  them  they  mustn't  say  anything 
about  me  or  our  engagement/'  she  said  to 
her  father,  "and  now  just  look  at  that!" 

"Well,  well,"  he  replied,  as  he  glanced 
over  the  article,  "they've  been  fairly  decent, 
at  any  rate,  in  the  way  they've  written  it 
up,  though  it's  not  pleasant  for  you  to  be 
thrown  into  the  limelight  like  this.  As  for 
their  making  known  your  engagement,  it 
can't  be  helped  now,  so  there's  no  use 
worrying  about  it.  But  you  mustn't  want 
to  be  married  too  soon,  daughter." 

Mildred  welcomed  this  final  grudginghalf- 
acquiescence  and  felt  that  it  was  well 
worth  the  price.  "Now  it  will  be  easy  to 
persuade  him  to  let  us  be  married  soon, 
when  Felix  comes  back,"  she  thought. 

But  the  morning's  news  had  not  an  atom 
more  of  information  concerning  the  archi- 
tect's whereabouts  than  she  had  known  the 
day  before.  Hugh  Gordon  also  had  dis- 
appeared. Before  the  publication  of  the 
investigating  committee's  report  several 


94       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

newspaper  men  had  seen  him  and  talked 
with  him  about  it,  but  the  next  day  they 
could  not  find  him  anywhere,  nor  any  one 
who  had  the  least  idea  whither  he  had  gone. 
One  member  of  the  committee  knew  Brand 
very  well  and,  in  pursuit  of  Miss  Annister's 
idea  that  Gordon  and  the  missing  architect 
might  be  relatives,  the  reporters  had  ques- 
tioned him  about  Gordon's  disappearance. 

There  was  some  resemblance,  he  said, 
although  he  had  not  thought  about  it  at 
the  time.  Gordon  was  a  larger  man,  he 
thought,  and  a  younger,  and  his  manner  was 
very  different.  Brand  was  always  affable, 
very  polite,  and  inclined  to  be  somewhat 
ceremonious;  but  Gordon  was  brusque, 
rather  aggressive,  and  seemed  to  be  much 
in  earnest.  His  evident  sincerity  and 
honesty  had  impressed  the  committee  very 
much.  But,  on  the  whole,  he  concluded, 
there  was  some  resemblance  between  the 
two  men  in  feature  and  coloring;  enough, 
perhaps,  to  indicate  that  they  might  be 
relatives. 

Mildred  was  keenly  disappointed  to  find 
so  little  of  consequence  or  of  promise  in  the 
news  of  the  morning,  but  the  committee- 


WHO  IS  HUGH  GORDON        95 

man's  description  of  Brand's  accuser  con- 
firmed her  in  her  conviction. 

"If  they  can  only  find  him,"  she  thought, 
"it  will  solve  the  whole  mystery  and  set 
Felix  right  before  the  public  again." 

She  telephoned  to  the  paper  which  had 
seemed  most  active  in  the  hunt  for  Gordon, 
begged  that  they  would  continue  the  search, 
and  made  the  city  editor  promise  to  call  her 
up  if  they  should  find  out  anything  new 
about  him  or  come  upon  any  trace  of  his 
movements.  For  the  rest  of  the  day  she 
refused  to  leave  the  house  and  sat  all  the 
time  in  high-strung  expectation  near  the 
telephone,  that  she  might  not  lose  a  moment 
in  responding  to  its  ring.  But  no  call  came 
until  late  in  the  evening,  when  the  city 
editor  rang  her  up  to  say  that  his  men  had 
discovered  absolutely  nothing  new,  and  that 
nobody  had  any  more  idea  what  had  become 
of  either  Brand  or  Gordon  than  they  had 
had  the  day  before. 


CHAPTER  VII 
FELIX  BRAND  READS  A  LETTER 

WHEN  Henrietta  Marne  entered  her 
office    on    the    morning    of    the 
second  day  after  the  publication 
of  the  charges  against  Felix  Brand,   she 
found   her   employer   already    there,    but 
sitting  moodily  at  his  desk,  his  head  in  his 
hands. 

As  she  came  forward,  exclaiming  joyfully 
and  making  anxious  inquiries  about  his  wel- 
fare, he  shrank  back  for  a  bare  instant,  with 
a  slight  turning  away,  as  of  one  who  fears 
observation.  But  he  quickly  recovered 
himself,  rose  with  his  usual  deferential 
politeness  and  gave  her  cordial  greeting. 
She  noted  that  he  looked  well,  although  his 
face  still  bore  a  harrowed  expression.  A 
something  out  of  the  ordinary  in  his  ap- 
pearance her  eyes  soon  resolved  into  the 
fact  that  his  dark,  waving  hair,  which 
previously  he  had  always  worn  rather  long 

(96) 


A  LETTER  97 

and  parted  in  the  middle,  was  so  short  that 
it  curled  closely  over  his  head. 

"I've  seen  the  papers/'  he  told  her,  "and 
I'm  quite  flattered  to  find  I'm  of  enough 
consequence  to  have  such  a  fuss  made  over 
me  just  because  I  left  the  city  for  a  few 
days.  If  I  had  dreamed  there  would  be 
this  sort  of  an  ado  I'd  have  told  you  where 
I  was  going.  But  my  idea  was  to  keep  my 
whereabouts  quiet  while  I  went  down  into 
West  Virginia,  in  the  mountains,  to  look 
into  the  proposition  of  developing  a  marble 
quarry.  I  expected  when  I  left  to  return 
in  three  or  four  days,  but  it  was  necessary 
to  go  so  far  on  horseback  that  I  couldn't 
get  back  that  soon  and  I  was  so  far  from  the 
telegraph  that  I  couldn't  communicate  with 
you." 

"Every  one  was  very  anxious,  and,  down 
in  my  heart,  I  was,  too,  but  I  told  every- 
body that  it  was  all  right,  that  you  were  just 
away  on  business  and  that  I  expected  you 
back  any  minute." 

"Yes,  I  saw  what  a  good  face  you  put 
on  it  when  the  reporters  insisted  on  know- 
ing everything  you  knew,  or  guessed,  or 
could  make  up.  I'm  grateful  to  you,  Miss 


98       FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Marne,  for  the  very  sensible  stand  you  took. 
You  showed  sense  and  prudence  and  did  all 
that  you  could  to  stop  that  absurd  fuss. 
If  I  should  happen  to  go  away  again  unex- 
pectedly,— "  he  hesitated,  wincing  ever  so 
little,  but  quickly  went  on:  "My  deal  fell 
through  this  time,  but  I  may  have  to  go 
again,  although  I  hope  not,  for  it's  a  beastly 
journey.  But  if  I  should,  and  there  should 
be  any  disturbance  about  it,  you  can  say 
frankly  that  I've  gone  to  look  at  some  land 
in  the  West  Virginia  mountains,  away  off 
the  railroad,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  get 
hold  of  me  until  I  return  to  civilization 
again." 

He  stopped  for  a  moment,  as  though 
turning  something  over  in  his  mind.  "But 
I  don't  want  to  say  just  where  it  is,"  he 
proceeded  cautiously,  "because  I  don't 
want  certain  parties  to  know  that  I  am  after 
this  property.  And  if  I  don't  tell  you  where 
it  is,"  and  he  turned  toward  her  with  a 
pleasant  smile  and  the  caressing  look  in  his 
soft  brown  eyes  that  had  so  much  power  to 
stir  feminine  hearts,  "you  can  truthfully 
say,  if  you  are  asked,  that  you  don't  know 
where  I  am  or  how  I  can  be  reached." 


A  LETTER  99 

"How  considerate  of  me  he  always  is," 
thought  Henrietta  as  she  thanked  him. 

It  was  not  until  she  had  gone  through 
the  accumulation  of  mail  with  him  and  had 
explained  to  him  all  that  she  had  done 
during  his  absence  that  he  mentioned  Hugh 
Gordon.  Then  he  merely  asked,  with 
some  hesitation  at  the  name,  as  though  he 
could  with  difficulty  bring  himself  to  speak 
it,  if  no  letter  had  come  from  him. 

"Yes,"  she  replied,  unlocking  a  drawer 
and  taking  out  a  bulky  envelope,  "this 
came  yesterday,  but  I  guessed  that  it  was 
from  him  and  so  did  not  open  it." 

Brand's  dark,  handsome  face  turned  a 
trifle  paler  and  his  hand  trembled  as  he 
thrust  the  letter  quickly  into  his  breast 
pocket. 

When  the  newspapermen  came  to  ask  if 
there  were  yet  any  news  of  him  Brand  saw 
them  in  his  own  room.  He  said  nothing  to 
Henrietta  about  the  charges  made  against 
him  by  the  investigating  committee,  but 
in  the  evening  papers  and  again  in  those  of 
the  next  morning  she  read  his  defense. 

He  knew  Mr.  Flaherty,  knew  him  quite 
well,  he  told  the  reporters,  and  had  had 


100     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

business  dealings  with  him.  Mr.  Flaherty 
had  advised  him  about  several  invest- 
ments he  had  thought  of  making  and 
had  helped  him  in  getting  some  out-of-the- 
way  information  concerning  them.  He 
had  been  impressed  by  the  shrewdness  of 
Mr.  Flaherty's  judgment  in  these  matters, 
had  relied  on  him  a  good  deal  and, 
altogether,  had  felt  under  so  much  obliga- 
tion to  him  that  when,  after  a  while,  he 
put  a  considerable  sum  of  money  into  Mr. 
Flaherty's  hands  for  investment,  he  had 
insisted  upon  the  politician's  taking  a 
more  liberal  commission  than  was  cus- 
tomary. His  idea  had  been  to  show 
his  appreciation  and  relieve  himself  from 
any  entanglement  or  obligation.  If  Mr. 
Flaherty  had  chosen  to  consider  it  a  bribe, 
he,  Felix  Brand,  could  hardly  be  held 
responsible  for  another's  idiosyncrasies. 

Yes,  he  had  talked  with  Mr.  Flaherty 
about  the  municipal  art  commission  and 
quite  possibly  had  said,  in  some  such 
conversation,  that  he  would  like  to  be  a 
member  of  that  body  because  of  certain 
desirable  things  which  it  could  do,  if  it 
would  make  the  effort,  for  the  city's  benefit. 


A  LETTER  101 

He  did  not  know,  but  he  supposed  that 
Mr.  Flaherty,  agreeing  with  him  about 
these  things  and  perhaps  moved  by  both 
public  spirit  and  friendly  impulse,  had 
persuaded  some  of  his  own  friends  higher 
up  to  suggest  his  appointment  to  the  com- 
mission. He  had  been,  he  declared  to  the 
newspapermen,  surprised  and  deeply  grati- 
fied by  that  appointment  and  keenly  sen- 
sible of  how  great  an  honor  it  was,  and  he 
had  hoped  to  make  his  service  upon  the 
commission  tell  for  the  good  of  the  city. 

But  he  did  not  wish  to  hold  any  position, 
and  especially  one  so  peculiarly  delicate 
in  its  relations  to  the  public  service,  under 
suspicion  of  any  sort  of  evil  practice.  And 
therefore  he  was  willing  to  resign  at  once  if 
the  investigating  committee  and  the  mayor 
thought  they  were  warranted  even  in  assum- 
ing his  guilt,  although  he  himself  would 
deeply  feel  the  injustice  of  such  a  decision 
and  would  be  profoundly  disappointed 
should  he  be  unable  to  make  trial  of  the 
plans  he  had  been  formulating. 

The  men  from  the  papers  were  eager  to 
know  all  that  he  could,  or  would,  tell  them 
about  Hugh  Gordon.  Had  Gordon  tried 


102      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

to  blackmail  him?  Was  he  a  relative? 
What  had  become  of  him?  Was  there  any- 
thing in  Miss  Annister's  suggestion  that 
Gordon  had  made  a  prisoner  of  him  and 
tried  to  extract  money  in  that  way? 

The  reporters  all  noticed  that  he  answered 
their  questions  on  this  subject  slowly  and 
with  caution.  Some  of  the  queries  he 
evaded,  some  he  adroitly  ignored,  only  a 
few  did  he  meet  squarely  and  fully,  and  he 
gave  them  the  very  distinct  impression  that 
he  thought  this  phase  of  the  matter  of  no 
consequence  whatever.  The  sum  total  of 
the  information  they  got  from  him  was  that 
he  had  a  very  slight  acquaintance  with 
"this  man  Gordon,"  who,  he  admitted,  was 
a  sort  of  connection;  that  he  could  not 
exactly  say  the  fellow  had  tried  to  black- 
mail him,  although  he  had  made  some 
threats  and  also  had,  to  express  it  politely, 
borrowed  money  of  him;  that  he  had  not 
been  held  in  durance  vile  during  his  absence, 
but  had  been  freely  chasing  the  almighty 
dollar  in  a  backwoods  region  of  the  South; 
and  that  he  had  not  the  slightest  idea 
whither  Gordon  had  gone,  or  what  had 
become  of  him. 


A  LETTER  103 

And  all  the  time  that  he  talked,  and, 
indeed,  through  every  moment  of  the  day, 
the  one  thing  of  which  he  was  supremely 
conscious  was  that  bulky  envelope  that 
seemed  like  a  weight  of  lead  in  his  breast 
pocket.  Many  times,  when  he  found  him- 
self alone,  did  his  hand  move  quickly  toward 
it.  But  each  time,  with  a  little  shudder 
of  repulsion  and  a  furtive  glance  about 
the  room,  his  arm  fell  back  and  the  letter 
was  left  untouched.  It  was  not  until 
late  in  the  evening,  when  he  had  returned 
to  his  apartment  and  had  sat  for  many 
minutes  alone  in  his  library,  his  expression 
telling  of  a  dark  and  bitter  mood,  that  at 
last,  with  sudden  resolution,  he  drew  the 
packet  from  his  breast. 

Even  then  he  did  not  at  once  open  it, 
but  held  it  in  a  shaking  hand,  and  stared 
at  it  with  an  angry  frown.  Once  he  grasped 
it  in  both  hands  and  made  as  if  he  would 
tear  it  in  two.  But  his  fingers  stopped 
with  their  first  movement  and  his  arms 
dropped. 

Springing  impatiently  to  his  feet  he 
moved  toward  the  .grate  as  if  he  would 
fling  the  missive  upon  the  coals.  But 


104     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

again  his  will  weakened  and  with  a  resent- 
ful exclamation  he  walked  back  to  his 
seat.  As  he  tore  the  envelope  open,  he 
looked  up,  startled,  as  if  he  had  heard 
some  unusual  sound,  gazed  about  the 
room,  moved  the  hangings  at  the  window, 
hurried  to  the  door,  which  stood  ajar,  and, 
after  a  glance  into  the  next  room,  closed 
and  locked  it.  Again  he  started  and 
stared  about  him  apprehensively.  Had 
he  heard,  he  asked  himself,  or  only  im- 
agined, the  sound  of  a  scornful,  arrogant 
laugh? 

At  last,  forcing  himself  to  the  task, 
he  began  to  read  the  letter.  It  was  written 
in  a  large,  open,  round  hand  that  was  very 
legible,  notwithstanding  the  somewhat  irreg- 
ular formation  of  the  letters. 

"I  went  last  week  to  see  your  mother 
and  sister,"  it  began  abruptly,  "and  you 
must  understand,  right  now,  that  you 
must  pay  more  attention  to  them.  You 
must  have  the  house  repaired  and,  in 
general,  make  them  more  comfortable — 
you  can  see,  as  well  as  another,  what  needs 
to  be  done.  They  would  like  to  have 
some  sign,  now  and  then,  that  you  remem- 


A  LETTER  105 

ber  and  care  about  them,  and  you  must 
give  it.  I  enclose  the  titles  of  some  books 
that  Penelope  would  like  to  read  and  you 
must  buy  them  and  send  them  to  her  at 
once.  I  told  her  you  would.  And  I 
told  them,  too,  that  you  are  planning  to 
give  Penelope  a  surprise  by  enclosing  one 
end  of  the  porch  with  glass  so  that  she  can 
sit  there  during  the  winter.  You'd  better 
make  them  a  visit  over  Sunday — next 
Sunday — and  give  the  order  for  the  work 
while  you  are  there.  Oh,  I  know  that 
your  beauty-loving  soul  shrinks  from  hav- 
ing to  look  at  poor,  helpless,  misshapen 
Penelope.  I  understand  perfectly  well 
that  you  much  prefer  to  look  at  young 
and  pretty  women,  but  my  mind  is  set 
on  this  matter.  You  must  do  as  I — shall 
we  say,  suggest? — and  that  without  delay 
or — there  will  be  consequences.  Her  poor 
body  is  not  half  so  ugly  or  repulsive  as 
your  selfish  soul,  Felix  Brand,  and  you 
know  very  well  who  is  responsible  for 
them  both." 

As  Brand  read  these  last  words  a  quick 
flush  darkened  his  face,  his  lips  twitched 
angrily  and  with  a  sudden  access  of  wrath 


106     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

he  was  about  to  tear  the  sheet  into  strips, 
when  his  eye  caught  the  next  sentence 
and  his  countenance  paled  again  as  quickly 
as  it  had  flushed.  "And  it  is  my  opinion," 
the  letter  went  on,  "that  she  also  is  not 
entirely  ignorant  on  that  question." 

Brand  half  rose,  crushing  the  letter  in 
his  hand.  "Blackguard!  I'll  read  no 
more  of  his  scurrilous  stuff!"  he  exclaimed 
with  angry  emphasis.  But  the  next  instant 
he  hesitated,  glanced  about  the  room  with 
a  sort  of  dazed  uncertainty,  then  sank 
into  the  chair  and  resumed  the  letter. 

"As  you  will,  doubtless,  have  learned 
when  you  read  this,  I  have  done  what 
I  told  you  I  would  about  that  municipal 
art  commission  affair.  You  didn't  believe 
I  knew  enough  to  carry  the  thing  through 
successfully.  But  you  know  better  now. 
I  hope  it  will  convince  you  that  when  I 
make — a  suggestion,  I  mean  it  and  that 
you'd  better  follow  my  advice  unless  you 
are  willing  to  take  the  consequences.  That 
bargaining  you  did  with  Flaherty  was  so 
idiotic  that  I  lost  all  patience  with  you. 
If  you  had  been  willing  to  wait  a  while, 
a  year  or  so,  you  could  have  got  the  posi- 


A  LETTER  107 

tion  in  a  perfectly  honorable  way.  But, 
no!  you  must  have  it  right  now,  in  order 
to  further  your  own  selfish  ends.  And 
so  you  reach  out  and  snatch  it,  just  as 
you  try  to  grasp  ruthlessly  whatever  you 
need  or  desire  for  your  own  purposes.  And, 
as  usual,  you  left  the  mark  of  your  pitchy 
fingers.  Your  soul  is  so  blackly  selfish, 
Felix  Brand,  that  it  oozes  corruption  out 
of  your  very  finger-ends  and  contaminates 
whatever  you  touch. 

"I  am  much  interested  in  your  mother 
and  sister,  and  I  want  them  to  be  happy. 
Unless  you  do  for  them  more  of  what  it 
is  in  your  power  to  do,  as  I  told  you  before, 
there  will  be  consequences — I  don't  know 
what,  just  yet,  but  I  can  promise  you  that 
you  will  find  them  unpleasant.  I  have 
an  eye  on  several  other  people  also  and  if 
it  is  possible  for  you  to  stop  any  of  the 
mischief  you  have  set  going  you  must  do 
it.  It  would  take  too  long  to  speak  of 
all  the  people  you  have  started  in  evil 
ways  with  your  insidious,  damnable  philos- 
ophy, and  would  probably  be  useless, 
too.  But  there  is  young  Mark  Fenlow, 
on  the  down  grade  already,  though  out 


108     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

of  college  less  than  a  year.     And  it  was 
you  who  put  him  there. 

"Oh,  I  know  how  blameless  you  con- 
sider yourself!  I  know  you  say  it  is  the 
right  of  every  one  to  taste  every  pleasure 
within  his  reach;  that  it  is  necessary  for 
one's  all-round  development  to  know  all 
sides  of  life;  that  it  adds  not  only  to 
one's  pleasure,  but  also  to  his  knowledge 
of  life  and  so  to  his  personal  power  to  try 
for  himself  every  possible  new  experience. 
You  are  strong  enough  to  dabble  in  every 
filthy  pool  you  encounter,  and  then  to 
let  it  alone  and  go  on  to  another.  You 
live  your  philosophy  and,  so  far  as  others 
can  see,  although  you  and  I  know  better, 
you  are  none  the  worse  for  it.  You  are 
a  promising  young  architect,  already  win- 
ning wealth  and  fame,  a  charming  fellow, 
a  handsome  genius,  whose  friendship  is 
worth  having  and  whose  example  it  is 
surely  all  right  to  follow!  But  what  about 
those  who  do  follow  it  and  have  less  will 
power  and  perhaps  less  of  that  self-control 
that  ambition  gives?  Are  you  so  hide- 
bound in  your  selfishness  that  you  feel 
no  responsibility  for  them? 


A  LETTER  109 

"But  I  know  you  are.  And  so  I  demand 
that  you  do  something  to  try  to  keep 
Mark  Fenlow  away  from  the  gaming  table 
and  make  him  understand  what  will  be 
the  outcome  of  the  way  he  is  going  now. 
There's  Robert  Moreton,  too.  He  begins 
to  look  like  a  dope  fiend.  I  don't  know 
whether  he  is  or  not,  but  he  looks  it.  If 
he  is,  it  is  all  because  you  described  to  him 
what  a  wonderful  experience  you  had 
when  you  spent  a  night  in  an  opium  joint 
and  told  him  he'd  better  try  it,  just  to 
see  what  it  was  like.  I  want  you  to  look 
him  up,  put  him  into  a  sanitarium  and, 
if  he  needs  it,  help  him  financially. 

"There  are  many  others,  but  I  can  not 
stop  to  speak  of  them  all  now.  Your  own 
conscience  ought  to  tell  you  of  them — 
if,  indeed,  you  have  a  conscience,  except 
for  me — and  move  you  to  try  to  repair 
the  damage  you  have  done.  I  insist  only 
that  you  shall  do  something,  and  I'll  leave 
the  matter  in  that  shape  for  the  present — 
until  I  come  again.  For  I  shall  come  again, 
Felix  Brand,  and  you  can  not  hinder  me. 
I  do  not  know  when,  but  it  will  not  be 
long,  I  promise  you. 


110      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"I  do  not  know  yet  just  what  I  shall 
do.  I  have  been  hoping  there  would  be 
room  enough  in  life  for  us  both.  But 
I  begin  to  doubt  that  a  man  so  evil  as 
you  has  the  right  to  live,  and  big  plans 
are  stirring  within  me.  But  it  will  all 
depend,  I  think,  upon  you;  upon  whether 
or  not  you  show  a  desire  to  overcome  your 
deliberately  fostered  selfishness  and  a  will- 
ingness to  recognize  your  human  respon- 
sibilities,— upon  whether  you  try  to  refrain 
from  evil  paths  yourself  and  to  right  the 
effects  of  your  influence  upon  others.  Yes, 
I  think  I  can  say  that  the  end  of  all  this 
will  depend  upon  you.  And  I  shall  be 
square  with  you.  I  shall  do  nothing 
without  giving  you  fair  warning  and  afford- 
ing you  every  chance. 

"With  the  money  I  borrowed  of  you — 
willy-nilly,  it  is  true,  but  still  borrowed, 
for  I  shall  repay  it — I  intend  to  go  into 
the  real  estate  business.  I  have  been 
looking  about  a  little  in  several  cities 
—New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia — that 
was  why  the  reporters  could  not  find  me 
these  few  days — and  have  decided  where 
I  shall  make  my  beginning  and  selected 


A  LETTER  111 

the  man  I  shall  take  into  partnership. 
A  week  or  two  when  I  return,  and  then  it 
will  be  plain  sailing.  I  shall  repay  that 
compulsory  loan  with  my  earliest  profits, 
for  I  do  not  choose  to  be  in  the  least  in- 
debted to  you. 

"As  I  have  what  I  profoundly  feel  to 
be  your  best  interests  at  heart,  and  am 
working  for  them,  I  can,  with  a  clear 
conscience,  sign  myself, 

"Faithfully  yours, 

HUGH  GORDON." 

As  Brand  read  the  last  lines  he  sprang 
to  his  feet  with  a  sharply  indrawn  breath 
and  a  muttered  oath.  In  his  eyes,  instead 
of  their  habitual  soft,  affectionate  look, 
was  the  glitter  of  a  roused  animal. 

"Impudent  devil!"  he  exclaimed.  "Scoun- 
drel! Dictating  to  me  as  if  he  had  the 
right!"  He  crushed  the  letter  in  one  fist 
and,  striding  across  the  room,  threw  it 
upon  the  coals  with  an  angry  jerk  of 
his  arm. 

"The  fellow  used  to  be  amusing,"  he 
said  to  himself,  scowling  with  anger  as 
he  watched  the  sheets  blaze  up,  "but  he's 


112     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

getting  too  insolent  to  put  up  with  any 
longer." 

His  scowl  deepened  as  he  watched  a  word 
or  phrase  shine  out  in  the  lapping  flame, 
and  remembered  the  context.  "Damn 
you,"  he  cried  aloud,  whirling  about  and 
shaking  his  fist  at  the  empty  room.  "I'll 
take  no  orders  from  you!  I'll  force  you 
back  where  you  belong — and  I'll  do  it 
in  my  own  way,  too!" 


CHAPTER  VIII 
DAYS  OF  STRESS 

THE  little  puff  of  popular  interest 
in  Felix  Brand's  disappearance  and 
in  the  charges  against  him  soon 
disappeared,  as  some  other  sensation  of  a 
day  took  its  place  in  the  newspaper  head- 
lines. People  ceased  talking  about  the 
matter  as  suddenly  as  they  had  begun 
and  Brand  congratulated  himself  that  a 
bank  failure,  and  then  a  mysterious  suicide, 
and  after  that  an  appalling  dynamite  explo- 
sion followed  so  closely  upon  his  return. 
He  told  himself  that  his  own  misadventure 
would  speedily  be  forgotten. 

As  the  weeks  went  by  he  became  more 
and  more  secure  in  that  conclusion.  Hugh 
Gordon  did  not  reappear.  And  as  time 
passed  on  and  no  official  action  was  taken 
upon  the  investigating  committee's  report 
the  architect  felt  assured  that  the  whole, 
matter  had  sunk  into  an  oblivion  which 

8  (113) 


114     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

held  no  menace  for  him,  and  his  spirit 
rose  in  exultation. 

Nor  was  this  the  only  matter  over  whose 
outcome  he  had  reason  to  be  satisfied. 
All  his  investments  were  doing  well  and 
his  transactions  in  stocks,  during  the  weeks 
after  his  return,  brought  him  money  in 
one  good  haul  after  another.  And  he 
secured  the  commission  to  design  a  new 
capitol  building  for  a  western  state  for  which 
there  had  been  lively  competition  among 
the  most  prominent  architects  of  the 
country. 

In  her  complete  loyalty  to  her  employer 
Henrietta  Marne  rejoiced  to  see  the  har- 
ried look  leaving  his  face  and  his  former 
ease  of  manner  and  good  spirits  return. 
Knowing,  as  she  did,  that  his  material  and 
professional  affairs  were  fulfilling  their  ear- 
lier promise,  she  attributed  the  improve- 
ment in  his  spirits  to  the  apparent  sinking 
out  of  sight  of  the  man  who,  she  was  con- 
vinced, had  been  responsible  for  all  his 
trouble. 

A  curious  change  in  Brand's  demeanor 
strengthened  her  in  this  conjecture.  Some- 
thing of  the  spirit  of  triumph  became 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  115 

manifest  in  his  air,  his  smile  was  self- 
confident  and  in  his  manner  was  the 
assuredness  of  the  man  who  has  won  some 
sort  of  victory. 

His  secretary,  noting  all  this  with  obser- 
vant but  discreet  eyes,  said  to  herself  that 
undoubtedly  it  was  all  on  account  of  Hugh 
Gordon.  Brand  had  not  mentioned  the 
man's  name  to  her  again  nor  had  she 
learned  anything  more  about  his  mysterious 
identity.  But  she  felt  sure  that  he  had  been 
trying,  from  some  evil  motive,  to  injure 
her  employer  both  personally  and  pro- 
fessionally, and  his  sudden  disappearance, 
followed  by  the  easing  of  Brand's  anxiety 
and  the  betterment  of  his  spirits,  con- 
vinced her  that  Gordon  had  been  at  the 
bottom  of  all  the  trouble  and  made  her 
hope  that  the  architect  had  stopped  his 
machinations  and  would  be  annoyed  by 
him  no  more. 

She  felt  that  this  Hugh  Gordon  must 
be  a  despicable  creature,  who  tried  to  do 
his  malevolent  work  in  mean,  underhand 
ways,  and  when  she  thought  of  him  it  was 
always  with  suspicion  and  enmity. 

The    winter    days    sped    on    and    Felix 


116     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Brand,  feeling  confident  that  his  footing 
was  once  more  entirely  firm  and  safe, 
opened  one  morning  with  no  misgiving  an 
envelope  that  bore  the  stamp  of  the  mayor's 
office.  But  even  with  its  first  lines  his 
heart,  lately  so  buoyant,  turned  to  lead. 
It  began  by  saying  that  doubtless  Mr. 
Brand's  duties  on  the  municipal  art  com- 
mission would  demand  more  time  and 
attention  than  he  could  bestow  upon  them 
in  justice  to  his  own  exacting  private 
affairs  and  that  therefore  whenever  he 
wished  to  tender  his  resignation  it  would 
receive  immediate  consideration. 

"I  shall  be  sorry,"  the  mayor  added, 
"to  lose  from  that  body  one  who  could 
contribute  to  the  public  service  so  much 
exact  knowledge  and  artistic  feeling;  but 
I  have  convinced  myself  that  the  conclu- 
sions of  my  investigating  committee  were 
correct,  notwithstanding  your  denial  and 
plausible  explanation.  Consequently,  I 
feel  that  the  interests  of  good  government 
make  this  step  necessary." 

Brand  was  a  good  deal  disturbed  by 
this  letter.  He  had  coveted  the  position 
much  and  had  been  deeply  gratified  when 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  117 

he  received  the  appointment.  For  the 
carrying  out  of  certain  plans  he  had  in 
mind  would  have  brought  him  prominently 
into  the  public  eye  and  secured  for  him 
much  popular  esteem  and  favor,  greatly 
to  the  benefit,  he  believed,  of  his  profes- 
sional reputation  and  his  income.  And 
now  suddenly  all  these  hopes  withered  and 
died  under  the  touch  of  this  veiled  but 
peremptory  demand  for  him  to  get  down 
and  out;  and  he  feared  that  if  he  did  not 
give  quick  heed  he  would  have  to  undergo 
more  publicity  of  the  affair  and  much 
humiliation.  So  he  sent  at  once  his  letter 
of  resignation. 

Soon  after  this  episode  Henrietta  began 
to  notice  in  his  face  again  the  signs  of 
apprehension  and  to  wonder  why  he  some- 
times gave  a  little  nervous  start  and  threw 
a  furtive  look  about  the  room. 

"Aren't  you  working  too  hard,  Mr. 
Brand?"  she  said  to  him  one  day.  "You 
seem  to  be  under  such  a  nervous  strain 
since  you  began  on  that  capitol  building. 
Don't  you  think  you  ought  to  take  a  rest 
before  you  really  give  yourself  up  to  it? 
I'm  afraid  you  won't  do  yourself  justice 


118     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

if  you  go  on  with  the  work  while  you  are 
in  this  condition." 

He  looked  at  her  with  his  winning, 
caressing  smile  of  mouth  and  eyes.  "  Thank 
you,  Miss  Marne.  It's  kind  of  you  to  be 
so  thoughtful  about  me.  A  rest  would  be 
pleasant,  but  I  couldn't  leave,  just  now, 
I'm  afraid.  You  know  Stewart  Macfar- 
lane  has  asked  me  to  design  a  country 
house  with  big  grounds  on  some  property 
he  has  bought  down  toward  the  south  end 
of  Staten  Island,  and  I  must  go  over  there 
soon  and  study  the  lay  of  the  land  and  then 
begin  work  on  that.  And  I've  got  to  have 
the  design  for  that  capitol  building  ready 
to  submit  by  a  certain  date.  There  are 
three  or  four  unfinished  orders  on  hand  and 
I'm  on  the  track  of  another  public  building 
that  I  want  to  land.  So  I  guess  it  isn't 
rest  I  need  just  now,  Miss  Marne,  so  much 
as  a  straight  course  of  ten-hour  working 
days.  If — if  I  should  have  to  go  South 
again ' 

He  straightened  up  with  an  impatient 
jerk,  the  smile  faded  from  his  face  and  his 
mouth  settled  in  determined  lines.  "But 
I'm  not  going  to  take  that  journey  again," 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  119 

he  went  on  impatiently,  and  then  added 
with  decision,  "I've  settled  that." 

A  few  days  after  this  conversation  Brand 
received  a  letter  from  the  directors  of  the 
National  Architectural  Society  suggesting 
that  he  resign  as  president  of  that  body. 
"We  do  not  feel,"  they  said,  "that  our 
society  can  afford  to  continue  in  that 
office  a  man  against  whom  such  serious 
charges  of  misconduct  have  been  made 
and  who  has  not  asked  for  an  investigation. 
We  do  not  wish  to  have  the  matter  exploited 
publicly  any  more  than  is  absolutely  neces- 
sary. To  call  a  general  meeting  of  the 
society  for  its  discussion  would  be  sure  to 
result  in  newspaper  notice  that  would 
doubtless  be  as  disagreeable  to  you  as  it 
would  be  offensive  to  us  and  injurious  to 
our  organization.  Accordingly,  we  have 
decided  that  the  better  plan  would  be  for 
you  quietly  to  resign. 

"If  you  prefer,  a  general  meeting  can  be 
called  to  consider  the  matter  and  the 
society  can  then  decide  whether  or  not  to 
ask  for  your  resignation.  The  decision 
rests  with  you." 

Brand  immediately  replied  to  the  letter, 


120     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

complying  with  its  suggestion  in  dignified 
phrases  that  assured  the  directors  of  his 
loyalty  to  the  best  interests  of  the  society, 
although  he  was  keenly  sensitive  to  the 
injustice  that  they  were  doing  him. 

"It  ought  to  make  them  ashamed  of 
themselves,"  thought  Henrietta  as  she  typed 
the  letter.  "I  never  heard  of  such  injus- 
tice! They  ought  to  beg  his  pardon  and 
ask  him  to  keep  the  office." 

No  such  missive  of  apology  and  repara- 
tion came,  although  Henrietta  more  than 
half  expected  it.  But  Felix  Brand  cherished 
no  such  hope.  Instead,  premonitions  of 
disaster  of  which  these  two  episodes  would 
be  but  the  beginning,  began  to  dog  his 
thoughts.  His  heart  was  sore  with  disap- 
pointment and  mortification,  and  his  breast 
swelled  with  bitter  resentment  against  the 
man  whose  deliberate  action  had  started 
this  series  of  events.  As  he  dwelt  upon 
the  blasting  of  his  immediate  hopes,  the 
smirching  of  his  reputation  and  the  sudden 
sharp  check  to  the  sweeping  course  of  his 
career,  his  eyes  would  burn  with  hate  and 
anger. 

The  old  look  of  worry  returned  to  his 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  121 

face,  but  with  it  was  combined  one  of  grim 
determination  that  set  in  hard  lines  his 
usually  soft  and  smiling  mouth.  Some- 
times, Henrietta,  coming  suddenly  into 
his  private  office,  surprised  in  his  counte- 
nance signs  of  fear.  But  what  she  oftenest 
saw  there  was  the  look  of  dogged  resolution. 
She  began  to  be  conscious,  too,  of  some 
sort  of  struggle  going  on  within  him.  She 
could  see  it  in  these  unaccustomed  expres- 
sions of  his  countenance,  hear  it  in  the 
petulant  voice  in  which  he  sometimes 
addressed  her,  so  different  from  his  usual 
suave  tones,  and  feel  it  in  the  nervous 
strain  under  which  he  was  evidently  labor- 
ing. 

As  the  days  went  by  the  very  atmosphere 
in  which  they  worked  seemed  to  her  to 
grow  tense  with  it,  and  on  days  when  it  was 
necessary  for  her  to  be  much  in  his  room 
she  would  go  home  in  the  evening  with  her 
own  nerves  quivering  from  its  influence. 

On  a  day  in  early  March,  a  bracing  day 
of  brilliant  sky,  clear  air  and  sharp  west 
wind,  Brand  said  to  Henrietta  when  he 
left  the  office  for  luncheon  that  probably 
he  would  not  return  in  the  afternoon,  "I 


122     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

think,"  he  said,  "that  I  shall  go  across  to 
Staten  Island  and  motor  down  to  Macfar- 
lane's  property  and  get  a  general  idea  of 
the  site  and  the  surroundings." 

"A  splendid  idea,"  she  assented  with 
enthusiasm.  "It's  such  a  fine  day,  the 
ride  will  do  you  good." 

"Do  you  think,"  he  said  with  a  smile, 
"that  your  sister  would  bear  me  company?" 

"I'm  sure  she  would  be  delighted," 
Henrietta  smiled  back,  and  not  until  an 
hour  later  did  she  remember,  with  a  little 
qualm  of  doubtfulness,  Mildred  Annister's 
evident  jealousy  of  their  previous  motor 
ride. 

"Dear  Mildred!"  she  thought.  '  She  is 
so  completely  wrapped  up  in  her  love.  I 
wish  Dr.  Annister  would  consent  for  them 
to  be  married  soon.  It  would  make 
Mildred  so  happy  and  I'm  sure  it  would 
be  a  good  thing  for  Mr.  Brand." 

When  Henrietta  reached  home  she  found 
her  sister  only  just  returned,  and  in  high 
spirits.  At  dinner,  her  eyes  sparkling  and 
her  cheeks  flushed  with  delicate  pink, 
her  droll  little  stories,  and  her  merry 
laughter  kept  them  all  in  a  gay  humor. 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  123 

"We've  had  such  a  good  time  this 
evening/'  said  Mrs.  Marne  when,  at  her 
early  bedtime,  she  bade  Henrietta  good- 
night. "  Wasn't  Bella  charming!  And  so 
pretty  she  looked  with  her  bright  eyes  and 
that  dainty  color  in  her  cheeks!  It  made 
me  wish  Warren  was  here  to  see  her.  I 
suppose  I'm  dreadfully  old-fashioned, 
Harry,  but  it  always  seems  to  me  that  if  a 
woman  is  looking  especially  beautiful  or 
charming  it's  somehow  just  wasted  if  the 
man  who  loves  her  isn't  there  to  see  it. 
Wasn't  it  kind  of  Mr.  Brand  to  take  Bella 
out  this  afternoon!  And  she  did  enjoy 
it  so  much !  I  can't  be  grateful  enough  that 
you  were  so  fortunate  as  to  get  a  position 
under  such  a  thorough  gentleman!" 

Billikins  was  Henrietta's  dog  and  her 
particular  care.  When  she  went  to  the 
kitchen  to  feed  him  after  dinner  she  found 
him  licking  many  gaping  wounds  in  the 
body  and  clothing  of  his  cherished  play- 
thing, the  rag-doll.  Delia  had  an  excited 
story  to  tell  her  of  his  disreputable  conduct 
during  the  afternoon. 

"It  was  very  queer  and  strange,  Miss 
Harry,  the  way  he  acted  when  Mr.  Brand 


124     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

was  here.  An'  him  always  such  a  mild 
and  innocent  little  dog!  Of  course  he  had 
to  run  into  the  hall  when  the  bell  rang, 
like  he  always  does,  to  see  what's  happen- 
ing, with  babykins  in  his  mouth,  and  as  I 
went  upstairs  to  call  Miss  Bella,  he  trotted 
into  the  parlor  where  I'd  shown  the  gentle- 
man. An'  when  I  come  down  you  just 
ought  to've  heard  the  wild  an'  awful 
noises  he  was  making!  He'd  dropped  his 
doll  and  was  whining  an'  howling  an' 
growling,  and  he'd  run  toward  Mr.  Brand 
an'  bark  an'  growl,  and  then  he'd  run  back 
and  stand  over  babykins  as  if  he  was 
afraid  something  would  happen  to  her,  an' 
growl  an'  whine  an'  bark!  I  called  him  and 
he  wouldn't  pay  no  attention  to  me  and 
I  had  to  go  in  and  pick  him  up  and  carry 
him  out,  him  an'  babykins  together,  and 
bring  them  out  here.  And  he  tried  to  go 
back  and  I  shut  the  door  and  then  he 
crouched  down  beside  it  and  worried  baby- 
kins  an'  tore  holes  in  her  an'  whined  an' 
growled  an'  trembled  as  if  he  was  most 
scared  to  death.  Now,  wasn't  it  queer 
and  strange,  Miss  Harry?" 
Billikins  had  stopped  eating  and  was 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  125 

looking  up  into  their  faces  as  if  he  under- 
stood what  they  were  talking  about.  Hen- 
rietta bent  over  him  and  he  crept  whining 
to  her  feet  and  looked  up  at  her  with  dumb 
appeal  in  his  eyes,  as  though  begging  to  be 
saved  from  some  mysterious,  menacing, 
unseen  thing.  She  took  him  up  in  her 
arms  and  felt  his  little  body  trembling 
with  fear  and  excitement.  Vivid  recol- 
lection came  to  her  of  how  her  own  nerves 
had  quivered  and  jangled  in  the  office 
that  day,  as  long  as  her  employer  was 
there,  until  it  had  taken  all  her  strength 
to  keep  them  under  control. 

"Poor  little  doggie,"  she  said,  stroking 
and  cuddling  him.     "Come  ajong  and  we'll 
take  babykins  upstairs  and  sew  her  all  up 
as  good  as  new  and  forget  all  about  it." 

"So  that  was  the  man  you  work  for, 
Miss  Harry!"  Delia  exclaimed  as  Henrietta 
turned  to  leave  the  room.  "I  was  dusting 
in  the  parlor  when  he  come  an'  I  watched 
him  as  he  come  up  the  walk,  and  he's  got 
a  firm  and  manly  tread.  He's  fine-legged 
and  handsome,  Miss  Harry,  but  if  I  was 
you  I'd  be  afraid  of  a  man  that  a  dog's 
afraid  of,  Miss  Harry," 


126     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"  We  had  such  a  jolly  time,"  said  Isabella 
to  her  sister  as  Henrietta  came  to  her  room 
for  a  confidential  chat  during  bedtime 
toilette  rites.  "Felix  Brand  is  just  the 
loveliest  ever.  But  you  know  I  always 
did  think  that,  even  before  I  met  him. 
Mother  was  having  her  afternoon  nap 
when  he  came  and  I  was  doubtful  about 
going.  But  he  said,  nonsense,  she'd  sleep 
till  I'd  get  back. 

"At  first  I  couldn't  help  feeling  a  little 
uneasy  about  her  and  perhaps  I  was  a 
tiny  bit  glum  and  not  as  entertaining  as 
he  thought  I'd  be.  And  he  seemed  sort 
of  glum  and  grim,  too,  and,  altogether, 
Harry,  on  the  first  lap  the  ride  didn't 
promise  to  be  entirely  successful. 

"But  after  a  while  he  was  afraid  I  was 
cold  and  said  we  must  find  something  to 
warm  us  up.  So  we  stopped  at  the  Wayside 
Tavern — you  remember  it,  don't  you?  You 
know  we  went  there  on  the  trolley  last 
summer  and  took  a  long  walk  into  the 
woods  and  had  some  lemonade  on  the  porch 
while  we  waited  for  the  car  on  our  way 
back.  Well,  we  went  in  there  and  this 
time  it  was  champagne " 


DAYS  OF  STRESS  127 

"Bella!    You  didn't,  did  you?" 
"Of  course  I  did!    Why  not?" 
"It  doesn't  seem  to  me  quite  a — a  nice 
thing  for  a  girl  to  do,  Bella." 

"Oh,  nonsense,  Harry!  What's  the 
matter  with  it?  Anyway,  there  wasn't 
anything  the  matter  with  the  champagne; 
nor  with  the  rest  of  our  ride  either.  We 
went  to  the  Macfarlane  place  and  circled 
round  it  and  he  told  me  some  of  the  things 
he  is  going  to  do  there,  and  then  we  did 
some  speeding  that  was — oh,  Harry,  we 
fairly  flew!  It  was  just  grand!  And  I 
guess  my  tongue  went,  too,  for  he  talked 
and  laughed  and  was  as  gay  as  could  be. 
I  forgot  all  about  poor  mother  until  we 
sighted  home  again.  But  I  never  had 
such  a  good  time  in  all  my  life." 


CHAPTER  IX 
BATTLING  WITH  THE  INVISIBLE 

IT  seemed  to  his  secretary  the  next  day 
that  Felix  Brand  was  in  a  calmer  mood. 
She  had  become  accustomed  to  read 
with  ease  his  tell-tale  countenance,  through 
which  shone  so  plainly  his  states  of  mind 
and  feeling,  and  the  first  anxious  glance 
she  cast  upon  him  with  her  morning  greet- 
ing  relieved   her   forebodings   of   another 
trying  day. 

The  signs  of  inward  struggle  were  no 
longer  manifest,  though  the  same  dogged 
resolution  still  sharpened  the  lines  of  his 
face,  and  it  was  evident  that  he  was  more 
able  to  concentrate  himself  upon  his  work 
than  he  had  been  for  many  days.  What- 
ever the  trouble  was  that  had  barked  and 
snapped  so  incessantly  about  him  that  his 
combat  with  it  had  distracted  his  attention 
and  engrossed  his  energies,  for  the  present 
at  least,  it  seemed  to  be  cast  aside.  In  the 
late  afternoon  Henrietta  heard  him  make 

(128) 


THE  INVISIBLE  129 

an  engagement  over  the  telephone  with 
Mildred  Annister. 

Before  he  left  the  office,  as  he  was  signing 
the  letters  she  had  typed,  he  stopped  over 
one,  after  writing  his  name,  and  considered 
it  for  a  moment.  It  was  concerned  with 
an  effort  he  was  making  to  get  control  of 
the  marble  quarry  in  which  he  was 
interested. 

"No,"  he  said,  "I'll  leave  this  matter 
until  tomorrow.  Please  call  my  attention 
to  it  in  the  morning,  if  I  should  happen  not 
to  think  of  it.  And  there  are  some  books, 
here  is  a  list  of  them,  which  I  should  like 
to  have  here,  ready  to  consult,  the  first 
thing  tomorrow.  You  may  send  the  boy 
for  them  now  and  leave  them  on  my  desk. 
These  two  he  may  buy,  but  the  others  have 
him  get  from  the  library.  If  any  of  these 
shouldn't  be  in  have  him  buy  those  also, 
for  I  particularly  want  to  have  them  ready 
for  use  as  soon  as  I  get  here.  And  I  shall 
probably,"  he  added,  looking  at  her  with 
his  pleasant  smile  as  he  picked  up  his  hat 
and  gloves,  "work  you  very  hard  tomorrow 
looking  up  references  and  finding  things 
for  me  that  I  remember  to  have  seen 


somewhere    inside    the    covers    of    those 
books." 

Henrietta  went  home  much  pleased  by 
the  favorable  turn  affairs  had  taken.  The 
better  prospect  for  her  own  personal  com- 
fort had  its  share  in  her  gratification.  But 
it  was  small  beside  her  relief  that  her 
employer  seemed  to  have  won  through  his 
besetting  harassments  and,  his  pleasant, 
winning  self  again,  was  once  more  earnestly 
devoting  himself  to  his  affairs.  For  these 
had  suffered  during  the  last  few  weeks, 
while  his  absorption  in  his  hidden  troubles 
not  only  had  kept  him  from  devoting 
proper  attention  to  them,  but  even  had 
seemed  to  dull  his  capacities.  He  himself 
had  felt  that  his  artistic  perceptions, 
usually  so  true  and  keen,  were  blunted  and 
blurred.  Upon  the  design  for  one  of  his 
commissions,  a  country  house  in  the  Berk- 
shires,  he  had  made  beginning  after  begin- 
ning, only  to  throw  each  one  aside  in  disgust 
and  discouragement.  Nor  had  the  various 
other  orders  in  hand  advanced  much  better. 
He  had  not  even  begun  the  design  for  the 
capitol  building,  although  he  was  under 
contract  to  have  it  finished  in  three  months. 


THE  INVISIBLE  131 

Henrietta  knew  that  he  was  beginning 
to  feel  worried  about  the  unsatisfactory 
trend  of  his  work  and  she  had  been  watching 
the  course  of  affairs  with  secret  anxiety. 
She  knew,  too,  that  recently  he  had  been 
disappointed  and  annoyed  by  several  busi- 
ness matters.  He  prided  himself  upon  his 
acute  business  sense,  but  lately  he  had 
blundered  more  than  once  in  his  orders 
to  his  stock  brokers  and  had  lost  some 
money. 

But,  puzzled  though  she  was  by  these 
developments  in  Felix  Brand's  character 
and  temperament  and  apprehensive  of  their 
results,  if  she  could  have  witnessed  the 
scene  that  was  taking  place  in  his  apart- 
ment ten  or  twelve  hours  after  he  bade  her 
that  smiling  farewell  for  the  day,  far 
greater  would  have  been  her  alarm  and 
bewilderment. 

It  was  well  toward  morning,  but  every 
light  in  every  room  was  shining  at  its 
brightest.  From  one  room  to  another, 
from  end  to  end  of  the  suite  and  back 
again,  its  master  was  walking  rapidly, 
constantly,  as  if  he  feared  to  stop  for  an 
instant  or  even  to  check  his  pace.  The 


132      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

light,  muffled  sound  of  his  hurried  tread 
barely  disturbed  the  silence  that  hung, 
close  and  heavy,  over  the  rooms;  that 
brooding  silence  of  the  late  hours  of  the 
night  which  seems  to  have  hushed  all  the 
sounds  that  ever  were,  but  out  of  which 
almost  any  sound  might  be  born. 

As  he  rushed  through  drawing  room, 
chambers,  dining  room,  library,  like  another 
Wandering  Jew  urged  pitilessly,  incessantly, 
back  and  forth  in  a  contracted  round,  not 
another  living  eye  did  his  own  encounter 
in  the  brilliantly  lighted  rooms.  He  was 
entirely  alone.  But  every  now  and  then 
his  voice  rang  sharply  through  the  stillness 
hi  angry,  resentful,  resolute  tones. 

"You  shall  not!  You  shaU  not!"  he 
shouted,  shaking  his  fist  at  the  empty 
air  and  squaring  his  shoulders  as  though 
he  expected  some  ghostly  enemy  to  mate- 
rialize from  behind  a  door  or  out  of  the  folds 
of  a  portiere. 

He  threw  off  his  coat  and  waistcoat  and, 
wiping  the  sweat  from  his  face,  hurried  on 
again  in  his  ceaseless  round. 

In  the  dining  room  he  halted  at  the 
sideboard  and  filled  a  glass  with  brandy 


THE  INVISIBLE  133 

and  soda.  It  was  his  custom  to  drink 
sparingly  at  all  times  and  when  alone  he 
rarely  touched  liquor  of  any  sort.  So  now, 
when  he  saw  how  much  of  the  brandy 
bottle  was  empty,  he  gave  a  low  whistle 
of  amazement. 

"What!"  he  exclaimed.  "Have  I  drank 
all  that  tonight?  And  I  wouldn't  know 
that  I'd  taken  a  drop!" 

He  swallowed  the  mixture  eagerly,  as  if 
it  were  some  elixir  from  which  he  expected 
to  gain  new  strength,  and  turned  back 
upon  his  tramp.  As  he  passed  through 
his  bedroom  his  gaze  longingly  sought  the 
bed  and  his  steps  wavered  toward  it.  His 
eyelids  yearned  for  sleep  and  his  strength 
was  ebbing.  With  a  stiffening  of  his 
muscles  and  a  clenching  of  his  fists  he  held 
himself  steadily  on  his  course. 

"No,  you  don't,"  he  muttered.  "I 
won't  give  in!  Do  you  hear  me?  I  will 
not  give  in!" 

He  marched  on,  his  head  thrust  forward, 
his  mouth  set  hard  in  dogged  determination 
and  his  hands  clenched  in  his  pockets. 
As  he  passed  through  the  library  he  sud- 
denly wavered  and  a  spasm  of  apprehension 


134     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

crossed  his  face.  He  paused  uncertainly 
for  a  moment,  then  strode  to  the  entrance 
door  of  the  apartment,  made  sure  that  it 
was  locked,  and  brought  the  key  back  with 
him.  A  gleam  of  triumph  mingled  with 
the  fear  and  anxiety  in  his  face  and  eyes 
as  he  turned  the  combination  lock  of  a 
little  safe  set  in  the  wall  behind  a  screen. 
The  door  swung  open  and  with  a  smile 
of  exultation  he  put  the  key  inside  and 
was  about  to  close  the  door  again  when 
he  stopped  short,  and,  as  if  with  the 
flashing  of  some  new  thought,  his  whole 
face  and  figure  sagged. 

"What's  the  use?"  he  muttered  disap- 
pointedly. "He  probably  knows  this  com- 
bination, damn  him,  as  well  as  I  do!" 

Anger  rose  in  a  quick  flood  and  with 
a  wrathful  oath  he  flung  the  key  on  the 
floor.  His  face  was  grimmer  and  more 
resolute  than  before  as  he  whirled  about 
and  rushed  from  the  room.  Already  pale 
and  drawn,  it  went  a  shade  whiter  with 
the  effort  of  will  that  kept  him  on  his  feet 
and  still  moving.  At  the  door  of  the 
drawing  room  his  hands  flew  upward  to 
the  height  of  his  shoulders  and  doubled 


THE  INVISIBLE  135 

into  fists.  His  eyes  were  fixed  in  a  blank 
stare  and  his  face  was  working  in  a  mortal 
agony. 

"Ah-h-h!"  he  gasped. 

And  then:  "There!"  he  cried  in  a 
triumphant  tone,  as  with  one  foot  he  sent 
spinning  across  the  room  the  chair  beside 
which  he  had  halted.  His  breast  was 
heaving  and  his  breath  coming  hard  as  he 
looked  this  way  and  that  with  wild  eyes. 
Throwing  open  a  window  he  put  out  his 
head  and  caught  the  cold  air  upon  his 
streaming  face.  The  sky  was  brightening 
with  the  promise  of  dawn. 

"Good  God!"  he  groaned  as  he  turned 
back  into  the  room.  "Why  did  I  try  to 
stick  this  out  alone?  Why  didn't  I  do 
something,  go  somewhere,  have  some  of 
the  fellows  come  here  to  an  all-night  game? 
Oh,  I  was  afraid — that's  the  truth,  I  was 
afraid — and  you  knew  it,  damn  you,  you 
knew  it!"  he  ended  in  angry  tones. 

In  the  library  he  looked  wistfully  toward 
his  favorite  easy  chair,  for  his  knees  trem- 
bled with  weariness.  "No,  no,  I  must 
not  stop.  If  I  sat  down  I'd  go  to  sleep, 
and  then " 


136     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

He  wheeled  about  and  started  back. 
But  he  held  his  head  higher  and  walked 
with  a  more  confident  air.  "I'm  winning," 
he  exclaimed,  and  there  was  glad  surety 
in  his  voice.  "It  was  a  close  call,  but 
I'm  winning!  Get  back  to  where  you 
belong,  you  dog!  Go  back  to  where  you 
came  from,  damn  you,  and  stay  there! 
I've  won,  I  tell  you!"  And  he  stamped 
his  foot  and  cried  again,  "I've  won!" 

But  confident  though  he  was  of  having 
won  this  victory,  whatever  it  might  be, 
over  the  invisible  enemy  whom  he  seemed 
both  to  hate  and  to  fear,  he  did  not  yet 
dare  to  cease  from  his  tramp.  Back  and 
forth  he  still  went;  and  presently,  pausing 
beside  the  open  window,  he  saw  that  the 
sky  was  flushed  with  sunrise  and  heard  the 
roar  and  rattle  of  another  day  rising  from 
the  streets. 

"A  bath  soon,  and  breakfast,"  he  thought, 
"and  then  out  for  the  day,  and  I'll  be 
fairly  safe  once  more.  And  if  things  get 
hard,  I'll  motor  over  to  Staten  Island  and 
take  Miss  Marne's  sister  out  again.  That 
experiment  helped  a  lot  yesterday." 

He  went  through  the  rooms,  putting  up 


THE  INVISIBLE  137 

shades  and  pushing  back  curtains  and 
switching  off  electric  lights.  His  face  was 
white  and  haggard  and  in  his  eyes  still 
lingered  the  look  of  wild  anxiety  which  had 
filled  them  for  so  many  hours.  With  hands 
that  trembled  he  poured  another  glass  of 
brandy  and  soda.  As  he  passed  the  door 
of  his  chamber  his  step  lagged,  he  turned 
and  looked  in. 

"No!  No!"  he  cried  harshly,  and  tried 
to  walk  on.  But  his  feet  were  like  lead 
and  held  him  there.  Once  more  his  body 
stiffened  for  battle,  his  teeth  ground  to- 
gether and  his  lips  shut  in  a  straight,  hard 
line. 

He  staggered  a  little  way  toward  the  bed, 
trying  to  hold  himself  back,  as  if  he  were 
wrestling,  with  all  his  remnant  of  strength 
and  will,  against  some  immaterial,  com- 
pelling force.  Striking  out  with  one  fist, 
as  at  some  foe  beside  him,  he  shouted 
thickly,  "Go!  Go  back,  I  say!"  And 
with  a  supreme  effort  he  wheeled  about 
and  with  uncertain,  heavy  steps  moved 
back  toward  the  door. 

"I  will  not!  I  will  not!"  he  muttered, 
his  voice  unsteady  and  anguished.  From 


138     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

his  face  had  faded  the  determined  look  and 
his  eyes,  glassy  and  staring,  were  turned 
upward  in  terrified  appeal. 

Even  as  he  spoke  his  feet  once  more 
refused  to  move.  They  seemed  rooted  to 
the  floor,  but  his  body,  though  he  tried  his 
best  still  to  face  toward  the  entrance, 
turned  again  toward  the  bed.  He  caught 
at  the  door  and  braced  himself  against  it 
for  a  moment.  Then  his  grasp  weakened 
and  his  arms  fell  down. 

The  clutching  will  that  was  battling  with 
his  moved  him  one  step,  and  then  another, 
toward  the  end  that  he  feared,  though 
he  strove  so  fiercely  against  it  that  the 
sinews  of  his  neck  seemed  about  to  burst 
through  their  restraining  skin.  Stiffening 
his  body,  catching  at  chairs  and  tables  and 
putting  all  his  strength  into  the  effort  to 
hold  his  feet  firm  upon  the  floor,  he  fought 
with  the  intangible  force  that  gripped  him. 

"I  will  not!  I  will  not!"  he  gasped; 
and  with  a  mighty  effort  tore  himself  from 
his  bonds  and  rushed  toward  the  door. 
But  again  viewless  hands  seized  him  and 
turned  him  suddenly  about.  His  haggard 
face  flushed  to  a  dull  red  and  beaded  with 


HE  SANK  FACE  DOWNWARD  UPON  THE  BED 


THE  INVISIBLE  139 

sweat  as  he  fought  with  the  unseen  power 
that  impelled  him,  step  by  step,  across  the 
room. 

With  breath  coming  in  gasps,  he  struggled 
on  desperately,  sometimes  gaining  a  little 
space  and  again  losing  more;  and  seeing 
himself,  despite  his  utmost  efforts,  forced 
nearer  and  nearer  to  the  goal  that  he  knew 
meant  his  vanquishment.  Inch  by  inch 
he  fought  the  way  with  his  invisible  enemy 
to  the  very  bedside.  Even  there,  with  his 
last  ounce  of  strength,  he  made  a  final, 
futile  effort  to  break  away  from  his  intangi- 
ble captor.  Then  he  flung  up  his  arms  and 
covered  his  face  and  with  a  long  "oh-h-h," 
that  was  half  a  rageful,  hysterical  cry  and 
half  a  moan  of  despair,  he  sank  face  down- 
ward upon  the  bed. 

He  had  lost  the  battle  in  what  he  had 
thought  to  be  the  very  hour  of  victory. 


CHAPTER  X 

HUGH  GORDON  WINS  HENRIETTA'S 
CONFIDENCE 

HENRIETTA  reached  the  office  early 
that  morning,  lest  her  employer, 
in  his  eagerness  to  push  his  work, 
now  that  he  could  devote  himself  to  it  with 
undivided  energies,  should  get  there  first. 
She  looked  forward  to  the  day  with  pleasant 
anticipations,  for  she  had  assisted  him  in 
this  way  before  and  she  liked  it  the  best 
of  all  her  duties.  The  books  were  ready 
upon  his  desk,  but  he  had  not  yet  arrived. 
She  waited  for  him  all  the  forenoon, 
employing  herself  as  best  she  could,  and 
still  he  did  not  come. 

In  the  afternoon  she  tried  to  get  his 
apartment  on  the  telephone,  but  there  was 
no  answer.  Surely,  he  would  not  have 
left  the  city,  after  such  preparations  for  a 
busy  day,  without  sending  her  some  mes- 
sage. She  called  up  Dr.  Annister  and  asked 
if  he  had  seen  Mr.  Brand  that  day,  or  knew 

(140) 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  141 

whether  or  not  he  had  unexpectedly  gone 
out  of  the  city.  No,  the  doctor  replied, 
he  had  not  seen  Mr.  Brand  since  the  evening 
before,  when  he  and  Mildred  and  Mrs. 
Annister  had  gone  to  the  theatre  together. 
As  Mildred  had  been  looking  quite  happy 
all  day  he  did  not  think  Felix  could  have 
said  anything  about  going  out  of  town. 
And  he  had  promised  to  dine  with  them 
tomorrow  night.  Doubtless  if  he  had  gone 
anywhere  it  was  only  for  the  day  and  Dr. 
Annister  was  cheerfully  confident  Henrietta 
might  expect  to  see  him  again  on  the 
morrow. 

She  lingered  at  the  office  an  hour  later 
than  usual,  hoping  for  some  word  from  the 
architect.  But  none  came.  The  next 
morning  she  hurried  back,  eagerly  antici- 
pating a  letter  or  a  telegram,  but  found 
neither.  All  day  she  waited,  her  nerves 
on  edge  with  expectation  and  anxiety,  but 
Brand  did  not  come  nor  did  he  send  her 
any  message. 

"This  is  worse  than  it  was  before," 
thought  Henrietta,  "for  then  he  told  me 
beforehand  that  he  might  have  to  go. 
And  he  said  so  positively,  only  a  little 


142     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

while  ago,  that  he  did  not  intend  to  take 
that  trip  south  again.  Perhaps  he  found 
he  had  to  go  after  all.  Anyway,  I  guess 
it's  what  I'd  better  tell  people." 

Remembering  his  dinner  engagement  at 
Dr.  Annister's,  she  made  that  explanation 
over  the  telephone.  Both  to  Dr.  Annister 
and  afterward  to  Mildred  she  said  that  she 
did  not  know  positively  that  he  had  gone 
to  West  Virginia,  but  that  he  had  told  her, 
when  he  returned  from  his  former  absence, 
that  that  was  where  he  had  been  and  that 
he  might  have  to  go  again,  although  he 
had  not  told  her  the  exact  place  because, 
for  business  reasons,  he  did  not  want  it 
to  be  known. 

Yes,  Mildred  assented,  he  had  said  the 
same  thing  to  her  and  she  understood  just 
how  it  was.  But  all  the  same,  it  was  cruel 
of  Felix,  and  not  at  all  like  him,  for  he  was 
always  so  sweetly  considerate,  to  go  off 
in  this  sudden,  secret  way  and  leave  them 
all  in  such  suspense. 

"When  we're  married,"  and  a  happy 
little  laugh  came  rippling  over  the  telephone 
to  Henrietta's  ear,  "it  shan't  be  like  this, 
for  then  he'll  have  to  take  me  with  him  on 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  143 

all  such  jaunts  and  I'll  see  to  it  that  you 
know  where  we  are." 

As  the  days  went  by,  Henrietta,  ponder- 
ing with  ever  increasing  anxiety  the  mystery 
of  this  second  disappearance,  began  to 
doubt  the  explanation  she  gave  to  others. 
This  time  there  came  up  no  reason  for 
public  interest  and  so  even  the  knowledge 
that  he  was  away  was  confined  to  a  few  of 
his  friends  and  to  those  who  wished  to  see 
him  upon  business.  With  all  inquirers  his 
secretary  treated  his  absence  as  an  ordinary 
matter,  saying  merely  that  she  thought  he 
was  somewhere  in  the  mountains  of  West 
Virginia,  she  did  not  know  exactly  where, 
nor  could  she  say  positively  when  he  would 
be  back. 

Nevertheless,  looking  back  over  what  he 
said  to  her  on  his  return  after  his  previous 
long  absence,  Henrietta  recognized  in  it  a 
touch  of  insincerity.  At  the  time  she  had 
accepted  it  as  a  matter  of  course,  but  now, 
scrutinizing  her  memory  of  his  words  and 
his  manner,  in  the  light  of  all  that  had 
happened  since,  she  finally  said  to  herself, 
"I  don't  believe  he  was  telling  me  the 
truth." 


144     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

But  if  that  southern  business  trip  was  a 
deliberate  fabrication,  what,  then,  could  be 
the  reason  for  a  prolonged  absence,  so 
injurious  to  all  his  interests,  whose  real 
nature  and  purpose  he  had  been  at  such 
pains  to  conceal?  She  had  heard  of  men 
who  sometimes  slipped  out  of  sight  that 
they  might  plunge  unhampered  into  de- 
bauchery, and  she  began  to  wonder  if  such 
were  the  case  with  him,  or  if,  perhaps,  he 
had  fallen  a  victim  to  some  secret  vice. 
But  against  either  of  these  suppositions 
both  her  feminine  instincts  and  her  personal 
liking  for  her  employer  rebelled. 

"I  don't  see  how  that  could  be,"  she 
thought,  "for  he  is  always  so  nice  and 
refined.  There  is  no  suggestion  about  him 
of  anything  gross  or  so — unclean.  No,  it 
can't  be  anything  of  that  sort.  And  yet, 
he  seemed  so  nervous,  and  just  as  if  he  were 
fighting  against  something  with  all  his 
might — and  I  suppose  it  would  be  like  that 
if  he  were  fighting  the  desire  to  drink  or 
take  some  kind  of  dope.  But  I  can't 
believe  it.  I  wonder  if  that  Hugh  Gordon 
could  have  anything  to  do  with  it.  Well, 
whatever  the  explanation,  it's  evident  he 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  145 

doesn't  want  people  to  know  about  his 
being  away,  and  he  doesn't  like  it  to  be 
talked  about,  so  the  thing  for  me  to  do  is 
to  keep  as  still  as  a  mouse  and  not  to  let 
anybody  else  do  any  more  talking  than  I 
can  help." 

Even  at  home,  in  her  loyalty  to  her  sense 
of  duty,  Henrietta  said  no  more  than  to 
make  a  mere  mention  of  her  employer's 
absence  and  to  reply,  when  her  mother  or 
sister  made  occasional  inquiry,  that  he  had 
not  yet  returned. 

Brand  had  been  away  almost  a  week 
when  the  office  boy  brought  her  a  card  one 
morning  and  said  the  gentleman  was  partic- 
ularly anxious  to  see  her.  As  she  looked  at 
it  and  read  "Hugh  Gordon"  her  heart 
began  to  beat  faster  and  her  face  flushed  a 
sudden  red. 

Had  he  come,  she  wondered,  to  bring  her 
news  of  Brand's  whereabouts,  or,  perhaps, 
tidings  of  some  serious  misfortune?  The 
apprehensive  thought  flashed  through  her 
mind  that  perhaps  he  would  try,  under 
threat  of  evil  to  herself  or  her  employer,  to 
force  from  her  some  personal  or  business 
information  that  he  could  afterward  use  as 

10 


146     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

a  lever  against  the  architect,  and  she  told 
herself  that  she  must  be  very  careful  what 
she  said  to  him. 

She  felt  assured  that  he  was  there  for  no 
good  purpose,  and  during  the  moment  that 
she  waited  for  the  boy  to  bring  him  into 
her  room  her  mind  formed  a  swift  picture 
of  an  elderly  fellow,  slouching  and  shabby, 
red-nosed  and  unshaven,  bearing  all  the 
marks  of  a  parasitic  and  dissipated  life. 

When  she  saw  instead  a  well-groomed 
young  man,  wearing  an  English  looking  gray 
suit,  advancing  toward  her  with  a  quick, 
firm  step  and  a  self-confident  air,  the 
reversal  of  her  preconceived  ideas  was  so 
complete  that  for  an  instant  she  thought  it 
must  be  some  one  else.  The  suggestion  of  a 
smile  crossed  his  serious  face  as  he  met  her 
disconcerted  look  and,  halting  beside  her 
desk,  he  repeated  his  name. 

"I  have  come  to  see  you,  Miss  Marne, 
to  relieve  your  mind  of  any  apprehension 
you  may  feel  concerning  Mr.  Felix  Brand." 

"Oh,"  she  exclaimed,  the  reassurance  his 
words  gave  her  evident  at  once  in  her  voice. 
"  Then  you  have  seen  him?  You  know  that 
he  is  quite  well?" 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  147 

His  keen,  dark  eyes  swept  the  room  with 
an  alert  glance.  On  her  desk  glowed  a 
vase  of  sunshine-colored  daffodils.  She 
remembered  afterward  that,  while  his  one 
swift  glance  had  seemed  to  take  in  every- 
thing in  the  room,  it  had  passed  over  the 
flowers  as  coolly  as  it  had  over  the  chairs 
and  the  typewriter,  and  she  compared  it 
with  the  way  Felix  Brand's  eyes  would 
have  lingered  and  feasted  upon  them. 

"I  have  not  seen  him  for  several  days," 
he  replied,  his  gaze  again  straight  into  her 
eyes.  He  spoke  rapidly,  in  a  direct,  almost 
blunt  manner.  "But  I  can  assure  you  that 
you  need  to  feel  no  anxiety  about  him.  He 
is  quite  safe  and  will  be  back  here  as  soon 
as  circumstances  permit." 

Henrietta  hesitated  for  an  instant,  in 
quick  debate  with  herself  as  to  the  most 
prudent  course  to  pursue.  Should  she  try 
to  find  out  all  that  this  man  knew,  or, 
refusing  to  admit  how  much  she  was  in  the 
dark  herself,  thank  him  for  his  kindness  in 
such  a  way  as  to  make  him  believe  she  did 
not  need  his  information?  She  was  aware 
that  already  she  was  not  so  suspicious  of 
him  as  she  had  been  a  few  moments  before. 


148      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

The  friendly  sincerity  of  his  look  and  the 
blunt  frankness  of  his  manner  compelled 
her  into  a  less  wary,  less  hostile  feeling. 
Reminding  herself  again  that  she  must  be 
on  her  guard  she  motioned  him  to  a  chair 
beside  her  desk. 

"You  must  know,  Mr.  Gordon,"  she  said, 
looking  at  him  with  a  gaze  as  direct  as  his 
own,  "that  your  attitude  toward  Mr. 
Brand  some  weeks  ago  was  not  such  as  to 
make  me  feel,  now,  much  confidence  in 
your  good  intentions.  Frankly,  I  find  it 
difficult  to  believe  that  you  have  come  here 
with  his  good  in  view." 

Gordon's  serious  countenance  relaxed  a 
little  and  Henrietta  felt  herself  impelled 
to  a  responsive  smile,  which  she  quickly 
checked. 

"No,"  he  agreed,  "I  can't  expect  you, 
not  knowing  all  the  circumstances,  to 
understand  that  what  I  did  then  was 
intended  for  Felix's  Brand's  good.  I 
believed,  or  at  least  I  hoped,  that  it  would 
have  a  salutary  effect  upon  him  and  induce 
him  to  turn  back  from  a  course  of  conduct 
that  I  foresaw  would  be  disastrous." 

He  straightened  up  and  his  dark  eyes, 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  149 

that  would  have  been  somber  but  for  their 
keenness,  ran  quickly  down  over  her  face 
and  figure  and  then  rested  again  with  a 
softened  expression  upon  hers. 

"I  would  like  you  to  believe  that,  what- 
ever was  the  result  of  what  I  did,  I  had  no 
evil  or  selfish  motive  in  doing  it.  Can  you 
feel  that  much  confidence  in  me,  Miss 
Marne?" 

She  bent  her  eyes  upon  the  desk  for  the 
moment  of  silence  that  followed  his  ques- 
tion and  made  effort  to  voice  her  reply  in 
a  cool,  disinterested  tone. 

"I  can  understand  that  you  might  have 
been  moved  by  a  sense  of  duty  toward  the 
public  welfare — if  you  believed  in  your  own 
assertions.  I  gather  from  what  you  said 
just  now  that  you  wish  to  be  considered  Mr. 
Brand's  friend;  but  that  sort  of  thing  does 
not  agree  with  my  idea  of  the  loyalty  there 
should  be  between  friends." 

His  black  brows  drew  together  in  a 
slight  frown  as  he  looked  intently  at  her 
averted  face.  "Well,"  he  said,  more  slowly 
than  he  had  previously  spoken,  "I  shall  not 
try  to  justify  myself.  I  shall  only  repeat 
that  my  motive  was  neither  selfish  nor 


150      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

malicious.  I  had  not  thought  particularly, 
in  fact,  I  had  not  thought  at  all  then, 
about  the  public  side  of  it.  I  did  it  solely 
in  the  hope  that  it  would  have  a  good 
effect  upon  Felix."  He  paused  again  for 
a  moment  and  as  she  noted  his  familiar  use 
of  her  employer's  name  she  thought  that, 
after  all,  the  relations  between  them  must 
be  intimate. 

"But  I  hope,"  he  went  on,  his  manner 
again  brusque,  "that  you  will  free  your 
mind  from  all  suspicion  as  to  my  reasons 
for  coming  here  today." 

She  flushed  and  turned  a  little  more 
away,  and  he  smiled  behind  his  hand  as  he 
stroked  his  short,  thick,  black  mustache. 

"I  know  already  more  about  Felix  Brand 
and  his  affairs  than  pleases  me  and  I  am 
just  now  much  more  interested  in  my  own." 

She  faced  him  with  a  sudden  movement 
and  asked  sharply:  "Do  you  know  where 
he  is?" 

Her  eyes  caught  an  inscrutable  change 
in  his.  Something  almost  like  awe  came 
into  them  and  into  his  countenance  as  his 
gaze  turned  to  the  window  and  sought  the 
blue  and  distant  sky. 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  151 

"No,"  he  said,  his  voice  sounding  a 
solemn  note,  and  repeated:  "No,  I  do  not. 
I  do  not  know  where  he  is  now." 

His  eyes  returned  to  her  face  and  as  he 
met  her  startled  expression  he  exclaimed  in 
a  kindly  way,  leaning  forward  as  if  to  re- 
assure her:  "There!  I've  frightened  you! 
Please  don't  be  alarmed.  I  assure  you, 
there's  nothing  to  be  anxious  about.  Al- 
though I  don't  know  positively  where  Felix 
is,  just  now,  I  do  know  he  has  suffered  no 
harm,  no  real  harm,  and  I  believe,  I  am 
quite  sure,  he  will  be  back  here  again  as 
well  as  ever,  before  very  long.  I  came 
here  to  tell  you  this. 

She  studied  his  face  for  a  moment  and 
somehow,  against  her  will,  the  conviction 
came  upon  her  that  this  man  was  moved, 
as  he  declared,  by  good  motives. 

"It  was  kind  of  you,"  she  replied  at  last 
with  a  gracious  smile,  "and  I  thank  you 
very  much.  I  was  quite  anxious,  but  I 
believe  what  you  have  told  me  and  I  am 
greatly  relieved." 

He  looked  pleased  and  exclaimed  impul- 
sively: "And  I  thank  you  for  your  confi- 
dence in  me!" 


152     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

As  he  rose  to  go,  his  glance  once  more 
traveled  quickly  down  over  her  face  and 
figure  and  returned  to  her  eyes  with  a  look 
in  his  own  that  her  woman's  instinct  knew 
to  mean  appreciation,  interest,  liking. 

"By  the  way,"  he  said,  turning  impul- 
sively toward  her  and  speaking  in  a  quick, 
brusque  way,  "there  is  another  matter  I 
must  not  forget.  It  was  part  of  my  reason 
for  coming  here.  There  was  a  letter — 
you  remember — that  Felix  had  you  write 
the  last  day  he  was  here  and  then  asked  you 
not  to  send  just  then.  You  haven't  mailed 
it  yet,  have  you?" 

She  stared  at  him  in  astonishment  and 
said  "No,"  before  she  could  take  counsel  of 
her  caution. 

"I  didn't  suppose  you  had.  However,  I 
happen  to  know,  he  told  me,  that  he  would 
like  you  to  send  it  at  once,  just  as  it  stands 


now." 


Henrietta  was  so  astounded  by  this 
revelation  of  the  intimacy  that  must  exist 
between  the  two  men  that  for  a  moment  she 
could  not  reply.  For  the  letter  was  con- 
cerned with  an  effort  Brand  was  making  to 
get  control  of  the  marble  quarry  company 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  153 

in  which  he  had  invested  some  months 
before,  and  she  knew  that  he  was  keeping 
the  matter  very  secret  and  considered  it  of 
great  importance.  It  had  worried  her  more 
than  anything  else  in  his  arrested  affairs, 
for  she  hesitated  to  mail  it  without  farther 
instructions  from  him  and  yet  had  feared 
that  if  she  did  not  his  plans  might  fall 
through. 

Gordon  went  on  without  appearing  to 
notice  her  surprise,  although  she  felt  sure 
that  he  saw  it  and  was  amused  by  it.  "As 
you  know,  he  wanted  to  wait  a  day  or  two 
for  certain  developments  at  the  other  end." 

Henrietta  nodded.  "Yes,  and  I  have  not 
been  able  to  find  out  just  what  happened." 

"It's  all  right — just  as  Felix  hoped  it 
would  be,"  he  assured  her  and  went  on  to 
tell  her  briefly  what  had  occurred. 

After  his  departure  Henrietta  found  her- 
self comparing  her  visitor  with  her 
employer.  All  her  previous  thought  of 
Gordon  had  been  in  connection  with  Brand 
as  the  cause  of  his  troubles,  as  his  enemy 
and  even  his  persecutor.  So  now,  when 
Gordon  appeared  in  person,  it  was  against 
a  contrasting  background  of  the  appearance 


154     FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

and  character  of  the  man  to  whom  she 
felt  so  grateful  for  the  opportunity  of 
livelihood  amid  congenial  surroundings. 

Gordon  was  much  in  her  mind  during  the 
rest  of  the  day;  and  as  she  traveled  home- 
ward in  the  afternoon,  in  the  subway,  across 
the  ferry  in  the  glowing  sunset  light,  and  in 
the  clattering  trolley  car,  her  thought  was 
busy  with  speculation  about  him,  with 
comparison  of  him  with  Felix  Brand,  with 
recollections  of  what  he  had  said  and  how 
he  had  looked,  with  conjecture  as  to  the 
meaning  of  his  expression  when  she  asked 
him  if  he  knew  where  Brand  was. 

At  dinner  she  spoke  of  her  caller  to  her 
mother  and  sister.  At  once  they  were 
interested  and  were  eager  to  know  what  he 
was  like  and  what  Henrietta  thought  of  him. 
As  she  answered  their  questions  she  felt 
her  cheeks  flushing  when  she  saw  their  sur- 
prise that  she  should  praise  or  seem  to 
admire  the  man  who  was  Felix  Brand's 
enemy. 

"I  know  you  are  surprised,"  she  said, 
trying  to  overcome  a  sudden  access  of  self- 
consciousness,  "that  he  isn't  at  all  the  sort 
of  man  we  thought  him,  or  at  least  that  I 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  155 

was  sure  he  must  be.  But  it  was  certainly 
considerate  of  him  to  come,  and  there  was 
nothing  at  all  in  anything  he  said  or  did 
that  suggested  a  different  motive.  I  never 
was  more  surprised  in  my  life  than  I  was 
by  his  appearance.  You  know  Mr.  Brand 
told  the  reporters  that  he  is  a  relative  and 
I  had  supposed  he  must  be  some  dissipated, 
disreputable  sort  of  creature.  And  then  in 
came  this  good-looking  young  man — for  he 
is  good-looking,  though  not  so  handsome  as 
Mr.  Brand — his  face  hasn't  that  look  of 
refinement  and  affability.  He  was  well- 
dressed  and  looked  like  a  prosperous  young 
business  man,  and  he  has  such  a  straight- 
forward, independent  air." 

"Does  he  look  like  Mr.  Brand?"  queried 
Isabella,  so  interested  that  she  was  forget- 
ting her  dinner. 

"A  little — yes.  In  some  ways  a  good 
deal,  and  then  again  he  seems  so  different. 
He  is  dark  and  his  features  have  a  family 
resemblance.  But  otherwise  the  two  men 
are  not  alike.  You  know  that  dear  expres- 
sion Mr.  Brand's  eyes  always  have,  so 
winning  and  affectionate,  and  as  if  he 
thought  the  world  of  you.  Well,  Mr. 


156     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Gordon's  eyes  are  large  and  brown,  too,  but 
they  are  keen  and  they  look  right  through 
you  and  he  flashes  one  glance  around  the 
room  and  you  feel  that  he  knows  every- 
thing in  it.  He  isn't  so  polished  in  his 


manners " 


"Mr.  Brand  has  the  loveliest  manners  of 
any  man  I  ever  met,"  Isabella  interrupted. 
"His  mission  in  life  ought  to  be  to  travel 
round  and  show  them  off  as  a  pattern  for  all 
other  young  men.  I  wish  Warren  could 
have  the  advantage  of  a  few  lessons." 

"Bella!"  exclaimed  her  mother  reprov- 
ingly. "You  ought  not  to  speak  that  way 
of  the  man  who  is  almost  your  husband. 
And  Warren  is  such  a  good  man,  too!" 

"So  is  Mr.  Brand,"  Isabella  replied 
saucily,  "awfully  good,  just  too  good  to  be 
true.  Tell  us  more  about  Mr.  Gordon, 
Harry." 

"Why,  as  I  was  saying,  his  manner  isn't 
so  polished  as  Mr.  Brand's.  In  fact,  he  is 
so  direct  and  positive  that  he  seems  a  little 
curt,  though  I'm  sure  he  doesn't  mean  to  be. 
He  makes  you  feel  that  he's  very  sincere, 
too.  Mr.  Brand  seems  to  draw  people  to 
him  without  making  any  effort,  but  Mr. 


HENRIETTA'S  CONFIDENCE  157 

Gordon  is  more  compelling  and  something 
about  him  makes  you  take  an  interest  in 
him  and  believe  in  him." 

"He  impressed  you  a  good  deal,  didn't  he, 
Harry?"  said  Isabella,  looking  at  her  sister 
thoughtfully. 

Henrietta  felt  her  cheeks  warming  again 
and  was  annoyed  at  herself  that  she  should 
blush  in  this  way  when,  as  she  scolded  her- 
self, "there  was  no  reason  for  it." 

"I  don't  know  that  he  did,  particularly," 
she  said  defensively.  "His  coming  was 
rather  curious  and  you  and  mother  seemed 
interested  and  wanted  to  know  all  about 
him." 


CHAPTER  XI 
PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR 

PENELOPE  BRAND  lay  back  in  her 
wheel-chair  in  the  glass-enclosed 
porch  and  gave  herself  up  to  luxurious 
enjoyment  of  its  sun-filled  warmth.  The 
table  beside  her  with  its  books  and  its 
sewing,  but  just  now  finished  and  neatly 
folded,  gave  evidence  that  she  had  spent  a 
busy  morning,  Outside  there  was  bright 
sunshine,  too,  but  there  was  also  a  raw 
March  wind  that  filled  the  air  with  dust 
and  stimulated  the  tear-ducts  of  the  eyes 
that  faced  it.  The  little  glass  porch  had 
brought  a  very  great  pleasure  into  her 
life,  giving  her,  during  the  shut-in  winter 
season,  always  hard  for  her  to  endure, 
wider  views  of  earth  and  sky,  a  flood  of  the 
sunshine  in  which  she  loved  to  bask  and, 
on  days  when  it  was  possible  to  keep  the 
entrance  open,  much  more  fresh  air. 

She  sat  there  alone,  loving  the  sunny 
warmth  and  thinking  of  the  brother  who 

(158) 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR   159 

had  made  her  pleasure  possible.  Her  secret 
mental  attitude  toward  him  was  marked  by 
a  certain  aloofness  and  a  quietly  judicial 
estimate  which  she  did  her  best  to  conceal 
from  her  mother.  It  had  cost  her  not  a 
little  effort,  too,  to  keep  this  attitude  from 
developing  into  stern  censorious  judgment. 
Just  now  it  added  to  her  pleasure  that  her 
feeling  toward  him,  at  least  for  the  time 
being,  could  be  mainly  that  of  gratitude, 
though  gratitude  tempered  by  curiosity. 

"  Perhaps  he'd  have  done  it  long  ago  if  I 
had  asked  him,"  she  told  herself.  "And 
I've  longed  for  something  of  the  sort  so 
much.  I  do  wonder  what  made  him  finally 
think  of  it  himself.  It  wasn't  like  him. 
He  might  have  thought  of  it  and  wanted  to 
do  it  ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  before  he  had 
plenty  of  money.  But  it's  not  like  him 


now." 


The  click  of  the  gate  attracted  her  atten- 
tion and  she  saw  a  man  coming  up  the  walk. 
"Why,  that  can't  be  Felix,"  she  thought  in 
doubting  surprise.  Then,  as  she  looked  at 
him  more  attentively,  "Oh,  no!  It's  that 
Mr.  Gordon  who  was  here  last  winter. 
Felix  didn't  seem  to  like  very  well  his  call- 


160     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

ing  on  us.  And  mother  isn't  at  home. 
Well,  I'll  have  to  see  him.  And  perhaps 
it's  just  as  well,  for  I  don't  care  particularly 
whether  Felix  likes  it  or  not." 

He  held  her  thin,  talon-like  hand  affec- 
tionately as  he  asked  how  she  was  and  if 
she  enjoyed  her  glass  cage. 

"Enjoy  it!  Oh,  Mr.  Gordon!  You 
can't  imagine  how  I  delight  in  it!  I  sit 
here  most  of  the  time  every  day  in  all  kinds 
of  weather.  It  has  given  me  the  greatest 
pleasure,  and  I  think  I  am  better  and 
stronger,  too,  because  of  it.  I  was  just 
thinking  how  grateful  I  am  to  Felix. 

His  face  and  eyes,  which  had  been  glow- 
ing with  responsive  pleasure,  darkened  at 
her  last  sentence. 

"I  don't  like  that  word  'grateful'  in  con- 
nection with  such  a  matter,"  he  exclaimed 
quickly.  "It  was  a  little  thing  for  Felix  to 
do,  only  one  out  of  all  the  many  things  that 
he  could  do  for  you  if  he  would,  and  one 
that  he  ought  to  have  done  long  ago.  And 
it  doesn't  seem  to  me,  Penelope,  that  you 
would  have  any  reason  to  be  ' grateful'  to 
Felix  Brand,  no  matter  how  much  he  might 
do  for  you." 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR    161 

The  significant  tone  in  which  he  spoke  the 
last  words  brought  surprise  into  her  face. 
She  turned  toward  him  with  astonished 
inquiry  in  her  dark  eyes,  but,  as  she  met 
his  assured  gaze,  that  expression  quickly 
changed  into  one  of  understanding.  It  was 
evident  that  she  knew  what  he  meant.  She 
looked  at  him  steadily  for  a  moment,  a 
moment  of  inner  effort  in  which  she  brought 
her  own  impulse  of  responsive  feeling  under 
firmer  control,  before  she  replied: 

"Wouldn't  that  be  a  barbarian  sort  of 
philosophy  to  live  by?' 

"Perhaps  it  would,"  he  admitted,  paused 
an  instant,  and  then  went  on  with  some 
heat: 

"But  when  I  think  of  all  that  you  have 
suffered  because  of  him,  and  how  little 
he  has  tried  to  make  amends,  I  am  so 
indignant  that  merely  refraining  to  be 
'grateful'  for  such  a  crumb  as  this  seems 
nothing  to  what  he  deserves." 

A  faint  color  crept  into  her  thin,  pale 
cheeks  as  again  she  stared  at  him  wide- 
eyed. 

"I  know  all  about  it,"  he  continued, 
nodding  at  her  gravely.  "I  know  that  you 

11 


162      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

would  have  been  as  straight  and  strong 
as  any  girl,  and  a  noble,  capable,  active 
woman,  if  he  hadn't  pushed  you  off  the 
limb  of  that  apple-tree  in  your  back  yard 
twenty  years  ago,  because  he  was  deter- 
mined to  have  your  place." 

"Did  he  tell  you  about  it?"  she  de- 
manded, her  voice  trembling  with  excite- 
ment. "But  he  must  have,  because  no- 
body else,  not  even  father  or  mother,  ever 
knew.  They  thought  I  fell." 

"Yes,  I  know  that  was  the  version  he 
gave  of  the  affair,  and  everybody  accepted 
it.  And  you  kept  the  truth  to  yourself." 

"What  good  would  it  have  done  to  blame 
him  after  it  was  all  over?  And  he  didn't 
intend  to  do  it." 

"Yes,  he  did!  He  meant  to  push  you 
off  and  get  your  place  and  show  you  that 
he  was  boss." 

"Perhaps,  but  he  had  no  intention  of 
hurting  me — he  didn't  think  that  it  would." 

"Oh,  I  know  he  had  no  murderous  pur- 
pose. He  just  gave  up  to  a  selfish,  brutal 
impulse,  and  afterwards  he  was  too  cow- 
ardly and  too  selfish  to  confess  the  truth." 

She  turned  upon  him  a  steady,  wondering 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR  163 

gaze  and  he  shrank  back  a  little  and  went 
on  more  humbly: 

"I  suppose  I  ought  not  to  speak  hi  that 
way  to  you  about  your  brother,  and  I 
hope  you  will  pardon  me.  But  when  I 
compare  your  life  with  his  it  makes  me 
too  indignant  to  keep  a  bridle  on  my  tongue. 
And,  besides,  Penelope,"  and  he  leaned 
toward  her  with  his  manner  again  forceful 
with  the  strength  of  his  convictions,  "you 
know  as  well  as  I  do  how  truthful  is  every 
word  I  have  said." 

"And  even  if  I  do/'  she  rejoined  with 
dignity,"  it  is  possible  that  I  would  not 
choose  to  admit  all  that  my  secret  heart 
might  think." 

She  stopped  with  a  little  start  and  a 
drawing  together  of  her  brows,  and  then, 
with  alarm  dawning  in  her  eyes,  she  leaned 
forward  eagerly  and  put  a  pleading  hand 
upon  his  arm: 

"You  won't  say  anything  about  this 
to  mother,  will  you?" 

Gordon  hesitated,  but  his  eyes,  flashing 
with  the  intensity  of  his  feeling,  softened 
as  they  fell  upon  her  anxious  face. 

"It's   hardly   fair,"    he   said   doggedly, 


164     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"it  certainly  isn't  just,  for  her  to  glorify 
Felix  as  she  does  when  he  is — what  he  is. 
In  justice  to  you  she  ought  to  know  this." 
"That's  of  no  consequence  at  all  beside 
the  pain  it  would  give  her  to  know  the 
truth.  You  don't  know  mother — nobody 
does  but  me — and  you  can't  appreciate 
in  the  least  what  Felix,  or,  rather,  her 
ideal  of  Felix,  means  to  her.  Mother  is, 
and  always  has  been,  a  romantic  sort 
of  woman,  as  you  might  guess" — and  she 
smiled  faintly  at  him — "by  the  names  she 
gave  her  children.  Her  own  life  has  been 
hard  and  monotonous,  with  little  pleasure, 
little  beauty — and  she  has  such  a  beauty- 
loving  nature — little  opportunity.  And 
she  is  so  shy,  too,  she  has  so  little  self- 
confidence.  So,  don't  you  see,  all  the 
romance  and  imagination  that  have  been 
starved  in  her  have  been  born  over  again 
for  her  in  Felix.  Felix  is  handsome,  mag- 
netic— he  attracts  people  and  makes  every- 
body his  friends,  as  she  would  have  liked 
to  do — he  is  a  genius,  he  creates  beautiful 
things,  he  lives  in  lovely  surroundings, 
he  is  winning  fame  and  wealth — life  for 
him  is  a  Grand  Adventure,  more  beautiful 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR  165 

and  wonderful  than  anything  she  ever  dared 
to  dream.  She  knows  Felix  is  selfish, 
but  she  can  always  see  so  many  reasons 
why  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  do  any 
particular  generous  thing.  Oh,  Mr.  Gor- 
don, it  would  grieve  her  so  to  know  how 
that  accident  really  happened  and  how  he 
concealed  the  truth  and — and— 

"Ah,  you  don't  like  to  say  it,"  he  broke 
in  as  she  hesitated  and  ceased  speaking. 
"But  I  know  what  you  mean — how  he 
profited  by  it.  For  the  money  that  would 
have  been  divided  upon  the  education  of 
both  of  you  if  you  had  been  well  and  strong 
was  all  spent  upon  him.  And  he  took  it  and 
kept  silent." 

Again  she  stared  at  him  in  surprise. 
"How  frankly  Felix  must  have  talked  with 
you!"  she  exclaimed.  "He  never  would 
have  confessed  all  this  if  he  hadn't  felt 
remorseful  and  repentant!" 

"But  he  isn't!"  Gordon  blurted  out  with 
an  irritated  start.  "He's  come  to  think  it 
a  part  of  his  good  fortune.  If  he  had  been, 
or,  even,  if  he  were  now — well,  things  might 
have  turned  out  differently — that's  all  I 
can  say." 


166     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"But  we're  getting  away  from  mother. 
Don't  you  see,  Mr.  Gordon,  that  it  would 
be  cruel?  And  what  good  would  it  do? 
Felix  is  what  he  is,  and  he'll  stay  so  to  the 
end  of  the  chapter.  You  can't  change 
him  and  you  would  only  spoil  mother's 
happiness  in  him.  Promise  me,  Mr.  Gor- 
don, that  you  won't  tell  her  anything  about 
it,  that  you  won't  say  anything  to  her 
about  Felix  that  would  make  her  unhappy!" 

Gordon  rose  abruptly  and  walked  across 
the  little  enclosure  and  back  again,  his 
black  brows  drawn  together,  before  he 
replied. 

"It  is  hard  to  refuse  you  anything, 
Penelope,"  he  said  finally,  standing  in 
front  of  her  chair.  "You  have  had  so 
little,  and  you  deserve  so  much.  I  know 
you  are  right  about  this,  and  I  shrink 
from  hurting  her  as  much  as  you  do.  But 
when  I  think  of  Felix  and  the  course  he 
has  deliberately  followed,  it  angers  me  so 
that  I  forget  everything  except  the  retri- 
bution he  so  richly  deserves.  But  you 
are  right  and  I  give  you  your  promise." 

He  smiled  upon  her  and  gently  patted 
the  hand  that  lay,  thin  and  feeble-looking, 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR  167 

on  the  arm  of  her  chair.  But  the  smile 
quickly  faded  from  his  face  as  he  met 
the  mingled  wonder  and  displeasure  of 
her  look. 

"I  thank  you  for  your  promise,"  she 
said,  "but  I  am  surprised  to  hear  you 
speak  so  bitterly  of  my  brother,  when 
you  seem  to  be  so  friendly  with  him  and 
he  has  given  you  such  intimate  confidence." 

Again  Gordon  walked  up  and  down  in  the 
narrow  space,  his  countenance  somber  with 
the  intentness  of  his  thought. 

"The  relations  between  us  are  peculiar," 
he  said  at  last,  speaking  more  slowly  and 
deliberately  than  was  usual  with  him.  "I 
wonder  if  I  could  tell  you  what  they  are. 
I  wonder  if  you  would  believe  me,  or  think 
me  sane,  if  I  should  tell  you.  Sometime 
I  shall  tell  you,  Penelope,  for  you  are  a 
broad-minded,  strong-souled  woman  and 
you  will  be  able  to  see  that  what  I  am 
doing  has  been  for  the  best  good  of  every- 
body concerned.  But  I  think  not  now. 
No,  not  yet,  not  till  after  I  have  worked 
out  my  plan.  But  I  want  you  to  know, 
Penelope,  and  I  shall  never  be  content 
until  you  do  understand.  For  I  honor 


168     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

and  admire  you  more  than  anyone  else 
I  know.  If  I  didn't,  perhaps  my  feeling 
about  Felix  wouldn't  be  quite  so  strong. 
And  I'll  try  to  curb  my  tongue  when  I 
speak  about  him  to  you." 

Penelope  had  begun  to  feel  much  wearied 
by  the  interview,  with  its  demands  upon 
her  emotional  strength  and  the  strange, 
tingling  excitement  with  which  Gordon's 
presence  wrought  upon  her  nerves,  just  as 
it  had  done  at  their  previous  meeting. 

His  compelling  personality,  that  had 
burst  so  unexpectedly  and  so  intimately 
into  her  life,  inspired  in  her  the  wish  to 
believe  in  him.  But  his  bitterness  toward 
her  brother,  notwithstanding  their  evident 
intimacy,  made  her  hesitate.  He  seemed 
so  sincere  and  so  straightforward  that  her 
impulse  was  to  meet  him  with  equal 
frankness.  But  she  was  still  a  little 
doubtful,  a  little  fearful. 

She  felt  that  she  must  know  more 
about  the  mysterious  relation,  with  its 
apparent  contradictions,  between  him  and 
Felix  before  she  could  give  him  the  con- 
fidence he  seemed  to  desire. 

"It  is  all  very  strange,"  she  said,  "and 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR  169 

after  you  are  gone  I  shall  wonder  whether 
I  have  been  dreaming  or  whether  some  one 
named  'Hugh  Gordon'  has  really  been 
here  saying  such  bitter  things  about  my 
brother.  Does  he  know  that  you  have 
such  a  poor  opinion  of  him?" 

"Does  he  know  it?"  Gordon  exclaimed, 
facing  her  impulsively  and  speaking  with 
emphasis.  "Indeed  he  does!  He  knows 
just  how  much  I — but  there!  I  promised 
to  bridle  my  tongue.  Well,  he  has  had 
a  great  deal  more  information  upon  that 
head  than  you  have!  ' 

"Well,  then,  I'll  have  to  forgive  you 
the  hard  things  you've  said  about  him  to 
me,  since  you've  been  just  as  frank  with 
him  first!" 

"Thank  you!  But  you  know  they  are 
all  true,  Penelope!" 

She  drew  back,  a  little  offended  that 
he  should  insist  a  second  time  upon  this 
point,  and  there  was  a  touch  of  scornfulness 
in  her  tones  as  she  rejoined  with  dignity: 

"I  do  not  deny  that  my  brother  has 
faults,  but  is  that  any  reason  why  I  should 
discuss  them  with  a  stranger?" 

"Don't  say  that,  Penelope!" 


170     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

His  cry  came  so  straightly  and  so  simply 
from  his  heart  that  its  honest  feeling  and  the 
look  of  pain  upon  his  face  moved  her  to 
quick  contrition  and  to  warmer  confidence. 
Surely,  she  told  herself,  there  could  be  no 
doubting  his  ardent  friendliness  toward 
her  mother  and  herself,  whatever  might 
be  his  attitude  toward  Felix. 

"I  have  known  about  you  such  a  long 
time,"  he  was  hurrying  on  in  pleading 
speech,  "that  you  are  like  an  old  friend- 
no,  more  than  that,  like  a  sister  in  my 
thought  of  you,  and  I  want  you  to  feel 
that  way  toward  me.  It  may  seem  strange 
to  you,  Penelope,  but  it  is  true,  that  you 
and  your  mother  are  nearer  and  dearer 
to  me  than  any  one  else  in  the  world. 
That's  why  it  hurts  when  you  call  me 
a  stranger,  although  I  know  I  can  hardly 
seem  more  than  that  to  you,  as  yet." 

He  sat  down  beside  her  and  took  one 
of  her  hands  for  a  moment  in  both  of  his. 
"But  we  are  going  to  change  that,  if 
you'll  let  me,"  he  said,  a  smile  lighting  his 
serious  face.  "If  you'll  let  me  I'm  going 
to  be  a  genuine  sort  of  brother  to  you. 
I  haven't  the  genius  that  Felix  has,  I'll 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR   171 

never  create  anything  beautiful  or  wonder- 
ful, but  I  have  got  a  knack  for  business 
and  I  can  make  money.  I  don't  care  any- 
thing about  money  for  itself,  but  I  do 
care  a  lot  for  all  the  things  one  can  do 
with  it. 

"My  head  is  full  of  ideas  and  plans  for 
using  the  money  I  shall  make  as  a  lever 
for  helping  the  world  along.  I  know  such 
things  interest  you,  Penelope.  You  like 
to  read  and  think  about  them  and  I'm 
sure  you'd  have  done  great  work  in  that 
line  if — if  Felix — if  there  had  been  no 
accident.  And  if  you  will  give  me  the 
benefit  of  your  reading  and  thinking,  it 
will  help  me  in  the  working  out  of  my 
plans." 

"I?  Could  I  be  of  any  use?  When  I 
am  such  a  prisoner  and  have  so  little 
strength?  I've  only  read  and  thought 
a  little — I  don't  know  anything  as  people 
do  who  come  face  to  face  with  actual 
conditions.  But  you  don't  know,"  and 
a  sharp,  indrawn  breath  and  the  wistful- 
ness  of  her  eyes  told  him  how  much  she  was 
moved  by  his  proposal,  "you  don't  know 
what  it  would  mean  to  me!" 


172     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"  I  can  guess,  Penelope — sister — you  don't 
mind  if  I  call  you  that?  I  know  a  little, 
and  your  face  tells  me  a  good  deal  more, 
about  how  your  spirit  has  rebelled  and  how 
you  have  battled  with  it  and  won  the 
victory.  You  haven't  found  it  easy  to 
be  a  prisoner  in  a  wheel-chair!" 

"Indeed,  I  have  not!" 

She  bent  her  thin,  humped  and  crooked 
body  forward  with  fresh  energy  and  a 
spark  of  the  spirit  she  had  conquered 
flashed  out  again  in  her  dark  eyes  and  tired 
face. 

"My  soul  has  longed  so  to  do  something, 
to  be  something,  to  be  able  to  use  my 
abilities  and  my  energies  as  other  people 
do!  I  have  longed  so  fiercely  to  go  about 
and  see  the  beautiful  and  wonderful  things 
in  the  world,  to  achieve  something  my- 
self and  to  meet  as  an  equal  other  people 
who  have  done  things  worth  while!  If 
there  is  hell  anywhere  it  used  to  be  in 
my  heart!  I  fought  it — it  was  the  only 
thing  there  was  to  do — by  myself,  for  I 
couldn't  add  to  mother's  troubles  such 
a  burden  as  that  would  have  been.  Father 
knew,  a  little,  of  how  I  felt,  before  he  died. 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR   173 

But  afterwards  I  fought  it  out  myself — • 
it  took  years  to  do  it — and  at  last  forced 
myself  into  a  sort  of  content,  or  resignation. 

"I  know  I  am  some  comfort  to  mother, 
although  I  have  cost  her  so  much  care. 
But  for  a  long  time  her  chief  pleasure, 
after  her  delight  in  Felix,  has  been  in  our 
companionship.  So  that  is  something, 
and  I  read  a  good  deal  and  think  all  I 
can,  and  I  try  to  do  through  others  the 
little  good  in  the  outside  world  that  is 
possible  to  me." 

She  leaned  back  again  feebly  and  closed 
her  eyes  for  a  moment  in  physical  weariness. 
"And  so  at  last,"  she  went  on,  meeting 
his  compassionate  look  with  a  faint  smile, 
"I  come  to  be — not  unhappy." 

"And  now  the  opportunity  is  coming," 
he  assured  her  impulsively,  "for  you  to 
make  some  use  of  your  sweet,  strong  spirit 
and  your  capable  brain.  But  I  don't 
know — Felix — I  don't  know — "  he  hesi- 
tated, casting  at  her  a  keen,  inquiring 
glance,  but  continued  in  a  confident  tone: 
"But  you'll  understand,  you'll  see  it's  for 
the  best!  Oh,  I  know  you'll  agree  that 
I'm  doing  the  right  thing!" 


174     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

He  saw  the  fatigue  in  her  countenance 
and  rose  to  go.  "I'm  afraid  I've  tired  you, 
Penelope,  but  I  hope  you'll  forgive  me  when 
I  tell  you  what  pleasure  our  talk  has  given 
me.  Before  I  go  I  want  to  ask  you  one 
more  thing — about  your  mother.  Did  she 
— was  she  much  grieved  by  what  I  did 
about — Felix  and  that  bribery  business?" 

A  look  of  gratification  crossed  Penelope's 
face.  "I  hoped  you  wouldn't  go  away 
without  saying  something  about  that," 
she  said  frankly.  "Of  course,  it  grieved 
her.  She  was  deeply  hurt." 

"I  knew  she  would  be,"  he  interrupted 
sorrowfully.  "But  it  was  the  best  way 
I  could  see.  I  thought  it  would  be  a  warn- 
ing to  Felix." 

"Of  course  she  didn't  believe  it  was  true. 
She  thought  you  were  acting  under  a 
conviction  of  public  duty  and  that  you 
were  mistaken  in  your  understanding  of 
what  had  happened.  You  impressed  her 
very  much  when  you  were  here  and  she 
thought  so  much  about  you  afterwards 
that  it  was  hard  for  her  to  reconcile  your 
action  with  your  friendship  for  Felix.  But 
she  did  and  finally  came  to  think  it  really 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR  175 

noble  in  you  to  hold  what  you  thought  to 
be  the  public  good  above  your  personal 
feelings." 

"But  it  was  Felix  I  was  thinking  of 
chiefly,"  he  protested.  "Still,  it  was  very 
sweet  of  her,  and  very  like  her,  too,  to  look 
at  it  in  that  way.  Would  she— do  you 
think  she  would  be  glad  to  see  me  if  she 
were  at  home?" 

"I  am  sure  she  would,"  replied  Penelope 
cordially.  "She  was  so  pleased  with  her 
fancy  of  your  being  her  dream  son  and  of 
your  coming  toward  us  out  of  the  snow- 
storm like  some  one  in  a  dream — dear 
mother!  It  all  pleased  her  so  much! 
And  she  talked  much  and  tenderly  about 
you  afterwards.  But  there  was  something 
that  disturbed  her,  and  I  must  tell  you 
about  it,  for  she  will  want  to  know  if  I 
explained  it  to  you." 

She  stopped  a  moment  and  threw  an 
observant  glance  upon  her  listener.  Ab- 
sorbed in  what  she  was  saying,  he  was 
looking  at  her  with  his  keen  eyes  and 
serious  face  all  soft  and  tender  with  emotion. 

Penelope  felt  her  heart  yearn  toward 
him  with  entire  trust.  "Felix  has  never 


176     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

cared  for  us  as  much  as  this  man  does 
already,"  she  thought. 

"Mother  was  afraid,"  she  continued, 
"that  you  might  think,  from  what  she  said 
about  her  hopes  when  Felix  was  a  little 
boy,  that  she  is  dissatisfied  with  him  now. 
Of  course,  you  know  that  isn't  true.  I've 
told  you  enough  for  you  to  see  how  she 
delights  and  glories  in  him.  She  would 
have  liked,  I  think,  to  see  him  become  a 
great  preacher  or  a  great  reformer.  But 
his  bent  wasn't  that  way,  and  I  don't 
believe  that  if  he  had  been  either  she  could 
have  been  prouder  of  him  than  she  is  now." 

"Well,  I  can  never  be  a  great  preacher, 
or  a  great  reformer  either,  or,  indeed,  a 
great  anything.  But  I  hope  I  shall  be 
able  to  do  some  good  in  the  world,  in  little 
spots  here  and  there,  and  I  want  very 
much  to  bring  more  happiness  into  her 
life  and  yours.  I  would  like  to  be  to  her 
a  son.  But — I  don't  know " 

He  hesitated  again  and  Penelope  saw 
doubt  come  into  his  face  and  his  eyes  grow 
wistful. 

"No,  I  don't  know  how  it  will  be.  I 
can  do  it — "  Again  he  stopped  for  a 


PENELOPE  HAS  A  VISITOR  177 

moment  and,  gazing  into  the  distance  as 
he  went  on,  he  seemed  to  Penelope  to  be 
speaking  more  to  himself  than  to  her. 
"I  can  do  it  only  by  giving  to  you  and  to 
her,  to  her  especially,  very  great  sorrow 
first.  Sometimes,  I'm  not  quite  sure- 
Then  sudden  resolution  seemed  to  seize 
him.  His  lips  shut  and  his  figure  stiffened 
with  determination.  "But  it  has  to  be — 
it  has  to  be,"  he  declared  abruptly.  His 
air  was  forceful  to  the  verge  of  aggressive- 
ness as  he  turned  to  her  again. 

"Good-bye,  Penelope.  Give  my  love 
to  your  mother  and  tell  her  I  was  sorry 
not  to  see  her.  It  has  been  good  to  see 
you  once  more  and  to  have  this  talk  with 
you.  I  shall  come  again  some  time  if  you 
will  let  me.  But  I  shall  not  believe  you 
unwilling  to  see  me  unless  you  yourself 
tell  me  so." 

"You  are  a  strange  man,"  she  replied, 
looking  at  him  with  frank  curiosity  but 
entire  friendliness,  "and  you  interest  me 
very  much.  Whenever  you  wish  to  come 
again  you  may  be  sure  that  no  matter 
what  you  may  have  been  doing,  I  at  least 
shall  be  glad  to  see  you." 

12 


178     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

His  abrupt,  aggressive  manner  softened, 
and  a  pleading  note  sounded  in  his  voice 
as  he  replied: 

"  Anyway,  you'll  try  to  think,  won't 
you,  that  I  believe,  from  the  bottom  of 
my  heart,  that  what  I  am  doing  and  shall 
do  concerning  Felix  is  for  the  good  of 
everybody,  even  for  his  good,  too,  extra- 
ordinary as  that  may  seem.  That's  the 
most  I  can  say,  until  the  time  comes  for 
me  to  tell  you  the  whole  story.  But  you 
shall  know  it  sometime,  Penelope.  Good- 
bye." 


CHAPTER  XII 
DR.  ANNISTER  HAS  DOUBTS 

EARLY  in  the  second  week  of  Brand's 
absence  his  secretary  had  another 
call  from  Hugh  Gordon.  Henrietta 
was  aware  of  a  little  thrill  of  pleasure  when 
the  office  boy  brought  her  his  card,  and 
quickly  accounted  for  it  to  herself  by 
thinking  that  perhaps  he  would  have  some 
news  of  her  employer.  But  he  had  nothing 
to  tell  her  and  he  made  excuse  for  coming 
by  asking  if  Brand  had  returned  or  if  she 
had  heard  from  him. 

Henrietta  was  puzzled  by  his  manner 
as  he  made  this  inquiry.  For  he  showed 
no  anxiety,  and  when  she  replied  he  received 
her  answer  with  as  little  interest  as  if  he 
had  known  beforehand  what  she  would 
say. 

"I  hoped  you  would  be  able  to  tell  me 
something  about  him,"  she  added. 

"I  do  not  know  where  he  is,"  he  replied, 
"but  I  am  positive  that  you  have  no 

(179) 


180     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

occasion  to  feel  anxious  about  him.  I  am 
quite  sure  he  will  return,  perhaps  before 
long.  I  assure  you,  if  anything  should 
happen  to  him,  I  should  know  it  before 
any  one  else." 

He  spoke  with  such  sincerity  that  her 
lingering  distrust  faded  away,  while  his 
abundant  physical  vigor,  manifest  alike 
in  his  appearance  and  his  manner,  made 
a  strong  appeal  to  her  feminine  nature. 
He  seemed  so  full  of  energetic  purpose, 
and  he  looked  at  her  with  such  a  self- 
assured,  straightforward  gaze  that  she  could 
no  longer  withhold  the  confidence  she  felt 
him  to  be  demanding.  Nor  did  the  fact 
that  her  woman's  instinct,  quickly  dis- 
covering the  scarcely  concealed  admiration 
in  his  eyes  and  countenance,  told  her  the 
reason  for  his  visit  lessen  her  inclination 
to  give  him  the  trust  he  desired. 

"Do  you  think,"  she  anxiously  asked, 
"that  I  ought  to  report  Mr.  Brand's 
disappearance  to  the  police?" 

"No,"  he  said  with  abrupt  positiveness, 
"I  do  not." 

Then  he  seemed  to  take  second  thought 
and  purposely  to  soften  his  manner  as  he 


DR.  ANNISTER  HAS  DOUBTS    181 

proceeded:  "When  he  returns  do  you 
think  he  would  be  pleased  to  learn  that 
another  hullaballoo  had  been  made  over 
his  absence,  doubtless  on  necessary  busi- 
ness?" 

"Oh,  no,  I  am  sure  he  would  not!  He 
didn't  like  it  at  all  the  other  time.  It 
was  only — I  feel  so  much  responsibility— 
and  I  am  so  uncertain  as  to  what  I  ought 
to  do.  I  am  not  letting  anybody  know" 
she  hesitated  and  blushed — "except  you, 
that  I  don't  really  know  where  he  is.  I 
thought  it  was  what  he  would  wish  if — it 
he  is  on  a  business  trip — in  West  Virginia— 
or  anywhere.  But  if  anything  has  happened 
— should  happen — to  him " 

"Don't  feel  anxious  on  that  score.  I 
shall  be  the  first  one  to  know  if  any  harm 
comes  to  him,  and  I  give  you  my  word  that 
you  shall  be  informed  as  soon  as  possible. 
I  came  in  to  give  you  this  assurance,  as 
I  feared  you  would  be  worried  by  his  long 
absence." 

Henrietta  was  surprised  when  her  visitor 
left  to  find  that  their  conversation  had 
lasted  for  half  an  hour.  "It  didn't  seem 
so  long,"  she  thought,  smiling  in  the 


182     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

pleasant  glow  that  still  enveloped  her 
consciousness. 

"I  hope  I  didn't  say  anything  I  ought 
not,"  her  thought  ran  on,  with  just  a  tinge 
of  anxiety.  "He  is  such  a  compelling 
sort  of  man,  you  have  to  trust  him,  and 
he's  so  blunt  and  direct  himself  that 
before  you  know  it  you  are  being  just  as 
frank  as  he  is." 

She  reviewed  their  talk  and  reassured 
herself,  with  much  gratification,  that  no- 
where had  it  touched  what  the  most 
sensitive  loyalty  to  her  employer  could 
have  thought  forbidden  ground. 

"It's  very  curious,"  she  marvelled,  "how 
he  knows  about  Mr.  Brand's  affairs.  They 
must  be  the  very  closest  friends  or  he  could 
never  know  so  much  about  Mr.  Brand's 
ambitions  and  how  he  feels  about  his  art. 
And  yet  there  was  a  flash  in  his  eyes 
every  time  Mr.  Brand's  name  was  men- 
tioned, and  he  looked  just  as  if  he  were 
trying  to  control  an  angry  feeling.  Still, 
they  are  surely  friends His  mus- 
tache is  very  handsome.  I  wonder  why  he 
doesn't  let  it  grow  longer." 

Toward  the  end  of  the  week  he  came 


DR.  ANNISTER  HAS  DOUBTS    183 

again  and  renewed  his  assurances  of  Brand's 
safety,  and  again  they  talked  happily 
together  for  a  length  of  time  that  startled 
Henrietta  when  she  looked  at  her  watch 
after  he  left.  Her  confidence  in  him 
increased  with  each  interview  and  so  also 
did  her  puzzlement  as  to  his  relations  with 
Felix  Brand.  For  several  days  she  debated 
with  herself  as  to  what  she  ought  to  do 
and  at  last,  in  her  anxiety  and  doubt,  she 
sought  the  counsel  of  Dr.  Annister. 

!She  told  him  the  whole  story,  admitting 
that  she  did  not  herself  believe  the  architect 
had  taken  the  southern  trip,  giving  her 
reasons  for  that  suspicion,  describing  the 
three  visits  of  Hugh  Gordon  and  recounting 
the  assurances  he  had  made  her  of  Brand's 
safety  and  early  return. 

"I  haven't  come  to  you  before,  Dr. 
Annister,"  she  said,  "  because  I  didn't  like 
to  worry  you  about  it.  I  know  what  a 
nervous  condition  Mildred  is  in,  anyway, 
because  she  doesn't  hear  from  him  and  I 
thought  that  if  she  guessed  the  real  state 
of  affairs  it  would  be  ten  times  harder  for 
her." 

"I   fear   Mildred   will  have   a  nervous 


184     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

collapse  if  he  does  not  return  soon,"  said 
Dr.  Annister  gravely,  "or  we  do  not  get 
some  assurance  that  all  is  well  with  him. 
You  say  that  this  Hugh  Gordon  declares 
he  doesn't  know  where  Felix  is?" 

"Yes,  that  is  what  he  says,  but  at  the 
same  time  he  seems  so  confident  there  can 
be  nothing  wrong  that  when  I  talk  with 
him  I  feel  it  will  be  all  right.  And  then 
afterwards  I  wonder  if  I  am  doing  the 
right  thing  in  keeping  it  all  so  quiet.  Do 
you  think,  Dr.  Annister,  that  we  ought  to 
put  the  case  into  the  hands  of  the  detec- 
tives? You  know,  if  we  did  that  and  then 
he  should  come  back  in  a  few  days,  as  he 
did  before,  he  would  be  dreadfully  annoyed." 

Dr.  Annister,  in  a  shabby  leather  arm- 
chair, in  whose  roomy  depths  his  undersized 
figure  seemed  smaller  than  ever,  leaned 
forward  with  his  elbows  on  its  arms  and 
thoughtfully  struck  together  the  ends  of 
his  fingers. 

They  were  in  his  private  office,  where 
this  chair  had  been  for  twenty  years  his 
favorite  seat.  It  was  his  attitude  and 
gesture  of  deepest  abstraction.  Many  a 
time,  sitting  thus,  and  gazing  with  intent 


DR.  ANNISTER  HAS  DOUBTS    185 

eyes  on  nothing  at  all,  had  he  found  light 
on  difficult  cases.  And  many  a  nervous 
wreck  among  his  patients  had  marched 
back  to  health  and  vigor  to  the  rhythmic 
tapping  of  those  finger-ends. 

Just  now  he  was  considering  the  possi- 
bility that  Felix  Brand,  the  famous  young 
architect,  his  son-in-law  to  be,  might  have 
sunk  out  of  sight  intentionally  in  order  to 
indulge  in  deeply  hidden  debauch.  Al- 
though it  had  but  recently  become  manifest, 
that  suggestion  of  sensuality  in  the  young 
man's  refined  and  handsome  countenance, 
the  physician's  only  ground  of  objection 
to  the  early  marriage  for  which  his  daughter 
and  her  lover  had  pleaded,  had  grown 
stronger  of  late.  But  if  Brand  should  be 
found  in  some  low  dive  it  might  get  out 
and  the  carrion-loving  sensational  news- 
papers would  make  an  ill-smelling  scandal 
into  which  Mildred's  name  would  be 
dragged.  No,  if  that  were  the  explanation, 
it  would  be  better  to  let  him  return  in  his 
own  good  time  and  then  have  a  serious 
talk  with  him  and  try  to  get  at  the  truth. 

"No,"  he  said  at  last,  taking  down  his 
arms  and  leaning  back  into  the  chair's 


186     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

capacious  embrace,  "I  don't  think  we'd 
better  take  that  extreme  measure;  at 
least,  not  yet.  In  my  judgment  you've 
acted  prudently,  my  dear,  in  not  letting 
anybody  know  his  absence  is  other  than 
an  ordinary  business  matter.  It  is  now 
about  two  weeks  since  he — went  away?" 

"Two  weeks  and  a  half." 

"Well,  I  think  we'd  better  wait  at  least 
another  week  before  we  do  anything.  And, 
meantime,  all  that  you've  told  me  will  be 
a  secret  between  you  and  me." 

"Thank  you,  Dr.  Annister.  ^You've 
relieved  my  anxiety  very  much,  indeed. 
And  I'm  so  glad  you  think  as  you  do,  for 
I  dreaded  doing  anything  about  it  for 
fear  it  might  get  into  the  papers  and  there 'd 
be  all  that  horrid  publicity  and  the  re- 
porters coming  and  catechizing  me  every 
day." 

"Wait  a  bit,"  he  said  as  she  rose  to  go. 
"  I  want  to  ask  you  more  about  this  Gordon. 
He  seems  to  you  an  honest,  straightforward 
sort  of  man?" 

"Oh,  entirely,  Dr.  Annister!  He  is  so 
frank  and  sincere  and  direct  that  you  can't 
help  believing  in  him.  He  seems  to  know 


DR.  ANNISTER  HAS  DOUBTS    187 

Mr.  Brand  very,  very  intimately,  too. 
And  yet  such  an  angry  look  crosses  his 
face  sometimes  when  we  speak  about  Mr. 
Brand  that  I  am  very  much  puzzled.  It 
doesn't  seem  as  if  they  could  be  such  good 
friends  as  they  would  have  to  be  for  Mr. 
Gordon  to  know  all  he  does." 

"I  wish  I  could  see  him  and  talk  with 
him  myself.  Do  you  know  his  address?" 

"No,  sir.  And  he's  not  in  either  the 
telephone  or  the  city  directory." 

"Well,  if  he  comes  to  your  office  again 
ask  him  to  come  up  here  with  you.  Ex- 
plain how  anxious  we  are — doubtless  he 
knows  that  Felix  and  Mildred  are  engaged — 
and  say  that  it  would  be  a  great  relief  to 
us  if  we  could  hear  from  his  own  lips  that 
he  is  still  sure  of  Mr.  Brand's  safety.  I'll 
see  him  first  and  if  he  inspires  my  confidence 
as  he  does  yours  I'll  have  Mildred  come 
in  and  talk  with  him,  too.  Won't  you  go 
up  and  see  Mildred  and  Mrs.  Annister?" 

"I'd  love  to,  Dr.  Annister,  but— Mildred 
will  be  so  anxious  for  news,  and  I  can't 
tell  her  anything  more  than  I  have  a  dozen 
times  already,  and— 

"I    understand,"    he    interrupted.       "I 


188     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

know,  it's  hard  not  to  be  able  to  tell  her 
what  she  longs  to  hear.  Ah,  Henrietta," 
and  he  shook  his  head  sadly,  "  there  isn't 
a  man  on  the  face  of  this  earth  that  is 
worthy  of  such  a  wealth  of  love !  But  how 
are  the  mother  and  sister?  And  how  is 
the  mortgage  getting  on?" 

He  was  standing  in  front  of  her,  and, 
although  she  was  not  a  tall  woman,  their 
eyes  were  on  a  level.  His  deeply  lined, 
thin  face  was  so  pale,  that,  with  its  white 
mustache,  heavy,  gray-white  eyebrows  and 
crown  of  silver-white  hair,  it  was  like  an 
artist's  study  of  white  against  white. 

As  Henrietta  looked  into  it  a  sudden 
vision  came  to  her  of  the  long  procession 
of  men  and  women  who  had  passed  through 
that  office,  stricken  and  fearful,  their  des- 
perate eyes  pleading  with  that  one  pale 
face  for  help,  and  a  lump  came  in  her  throat. 
She  coughed  before  she  could  speak. 

"We  begin  to  think  mother  is  getting 
better,"  she  said,  "now  that  she  is  feeling 
so  much  at  ease  about  money  matters. 
And  the  mortgage  is  slowly  dwindling. 
If  I  have  no  bad  luck  I  expect  to  clear  it 
all  off  by  the  end  of  the  summer." 


DR.  ANNISTER  HAS  DOUBTS    189 

"Good!  You  are  a  splendid,  plucky 
girl,  my  dear,  and  I'm  as  proud  of  you  as 
your  father  would  have  been!" 


CHAPTER  XIII 
MILDRED  Is  MILITANT 

THE  next  afternoon  Henrietta  left 
her  office  early,  in  order  to  discharge 
some  commissions  for  her  sister 
in  the  shopping  district.  Stopping  to 
look  at  a  window  display  of  spring  costumes, 
her  eye  was  caught  by  a  dress  that  suited 
her  taste  exactly.  She  inspected  it  from 
both  sides  and  went  into  the  doorway  that 
she  might  get  the  back  view. 

"What  a  lovely  suit  and  how  becoming 
it  would  be  for  me!"  she  thought.  "I 
wonder  if  I  could  afford  to  buy  it.  Oh 
dear,  no!  I  mustn't  even  think  of  such  a 
thing!  It  would  be  just  that  much  off 
the  mortgage  payments." 

She  turned  away  with  a  sigh  and  found 
herself  face  to  face  with  Hugh  Gordon, 
who  glanced  with  a  quizzical  smile  from 
her  to  the  window. 

"Did  you  hear  one  of  the  commandments 
cracking?"  she  laughed.  "I've  just  been 

(190) 


MILDRED  IS  MILITANT      191 

coveting  one  of  those  suits  as  hard  as  I 
could." 

"Are  you  going  in  to  buy  it  now?"  he 
asked  with  a  suggestion  of  disappointment 
in  his  air,  as  if,  having  come  upon  her  so 
unexpectedly,  he  disliked  to  lose  her  again 
at  once. 

"Oh,  dear,  no!  I'm  not  going  to  buy 
it  at  all.  I  can't  afford  it." 

"Well,  then,  you  are  wise  not  to  buy  it, 
and  the  best  way  is  not  even  to  think  about 
it  any  more,"  he  said  in  that  abrupt  manner 
to  which,  although  it  had  sometimes  startled 
her  at  their  first  meetings,  she  had  already 
grown  accustomed.  She  had  told  herself 
more  than  once,  indeed,  that  she  liked  it 
in  him,  it  seemed  so  expressive  of  his 
masculine  forcefulness  and  decision  of  char- 
acter. 

"How  different  you  are  from  Mr.  Brand," 
she  answered  smiling.  "He  would  say 
in  such  case,  'If  you  want  it  why  don't 
you  buy  it  at  once?  There's  no  time  like 
the  present  for  doing  the  things  you  want 
to  do.'" 

His  brows  came  together  in  a  quick 
frown  and  his  eyes  flashed  as  he  said: 


192     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Yes,  I  know  that  is  his  philosophy  of 
life.  But  it's  not  mine  by  a  long  ways. 
I  think  it  despicable." 

His  voice  sounded  harsh  and  angry  and 
Henrietta  looked  up  in  surprise  at  the 
intensity  of  feeling  it  betrayed. 

Then  she  remembered  Dr.  Annister's 
suggestion  and  exclaimed,  "Oh,  by  the 
way,  I've  a  message  for  you!" 

He  listened  with  interest  as  she  told  him 
of  Dr.  Annister's  desire  to  see  him  and 
asked  if  he  could  either  go  there  with  her 
now  or  make  an  appointment  for  another 
day. 

"It  would  be  kind  of  you  to  go,"  she 
added.  "You  have  relieved  my  mind 
so  much  about  Mr.  Brand  that  I  am  hoping 
you  can  make  them  feel  a  little  less  anxious, 
too — especially  Miss  Annister.  I  suppose 
you  know  she  and  Mr.  Brand  are  engaged!" 

"Yes,  I  know  it,"  he  answered  curtly  as 
he  looked  at  his  watch.  "I  have  some 
leisure  time  now,  a  couple  of  hours,  and  I 
can  go  at  once  as  well  as  not.  I  don't 
know,"  he  went  on  doubtfully,  "whether 
or  not  Miss  Annister  will  want  to  see  me. 
She  is  much  prejudiced  against  me." 


MILDRED  IS  MILITANT      193 

Henrietta's  mind  flew  back  to  the  decided 
opinions  Mildred  had  advanced  to  the 
reporters,  which,  however,  she  was  glad 
to  remember,  they  had  modified  in  their 
accounts. 

"She  was,  some  weeks  ago,"  Henrietta 
began  reassuringly. 

"And  is  yet,"  he  declared.  "I  happen 
to  know  that  her  feeling  toward  me  is 
very  hostile.  And  Felix  has  encouraged 
her  in  it." 

"She  is  so  very  much  in  love  with  Mr. 
Brand  and  so  wildly  anxious  it  would  be  a 
great  kindness  to  give  her  even  a  little 
comfort,"  Henrietta  gently  urged. 

"I'll  do  what  I  can,"  he  replied  after  a 
moment's  hesitation.  He  spoke  slowly 
and  his  companion,  looking  up,  wondered 
at  the  extremely  serious  expression  that 
had  come  into  his  face. 

As  they  entered  the  Annister  home, 
Mildred  and  her  mother  were  descending 
the  stairs,  dressed  for  the  street.  Henrietta 
looked  up  from  the  doorway  and  saw  Mil- 
dred's countenance  transfigured  with  sud- 
den joy. 

The  girl  sprang  down  the  steps  with  a 

13 


194     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

cry  of  "Oh,  Felix,  Felix!"  Gordon  stepped 
in  from  the  vestibule  where  his  features 
had  been  blurred  by  the  brilliant  sunlight 
behind  him,  and  Mildred,  stricken  with 
disappointment,  threw  up  her  hands  to 
cover  the  tears  she  could  not  control,  and 
sobbing,  rushed  back  up  the  stairs.  Gordon 
looked  grimly  on,  his  face  set  and  scowling, 
as  if  he  were  gripping  deep  into  his  very 
soul  with  an  iron  determination. 

"Come  up  to  the  drawing-room,"  said 
Mrs.  Annister,  when  Henrietta  had  pre- 
sented her  companion  and  explained  their 
errand,  "and  I'll  send  for  Dr.  Annister." 

Thither  also  she  presently  brought  Mil- 
dred. But  the  stately  air  with  which  the 
girl  entered  the  room  and  the  haughty 
inclination  of  her  head  with  which  she 
acknowledged  Gordon's  greeting  told  how 
little  trust  she  expected  to  feel  in  anything 
he  might  say. 

In  answer  to  Dr.  Annister's  inquiries 
Gordon  told  them,  in  substance,  what  he 
had  already  said  to  Henrietta  and  gave 
them,  in  brief,  curt  sentences,  that  seemed 
to  spring  spontaneously  out  of  the  force 
and  simplicity  of  his  character,  the  same 


MILDRED  IS  MILITANT      195 

assurances  that  Brand  was  in  no  danger 
and  that  he  would  return,  safe  and  well, 
in  his  own  good  time. 

"That,"  he  added,  "is  all  that  I  can  teU 
you,  because  it  is  all  I  know.  But  I  do 
know  that." 

"Father!"  cried  Mildred,  springing  from 
her  chair,  her  slender  figure  militantly 
erect,  her  eyes  flashing  and  her  voice 
thrilling  with  indignation.  "How  can  you 
sit  there  and  listen  to  this  man's  talk! 
Why  don't  you  throttle  him  and  make  him 
tell  all  he  knows?  It's  plain  enough  that 
if  he  knows  this  much  he  must  know  where 
Felix  is  and  why  he  doesn't  write  to  me. 
But  I  see  through  it  all!  He's  got  Felix 
locked  up  somewhere,  perhaps  in  some 
mountain  cabin  in  West  Virginia,  or  per- 
haps he's  killed  him.  He  ought  to  be 
arrested!  If  you  don't  care  enough  for 
Felix  to  have  it  done  I'll  telephone  for  the 
police  at  once  and  he  shall  not  leave  this 
house  until  they  come!" 

Her  words  poured  forth  in  an  angry 
torrent,  and  then,  with  a  sobbing  cry, 
she  swept  from  the  room.  Dr.  Annister 
leaped  to  his  feet  as  if  to  follow  her,  then 


196     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

turned  with  a  hand  outstretched  to  his 
wife. 

" You'd  better  go  to  her/'  he  said 
anxiously.  "She's  hysterical  and  must  be 
put  to  bed.  I'll  be  there  presently.  I 
hope  you  will  pardon  my  daughter's  out- 
burst," he  added,  turning  to  Gordon  with  a 
little  bow.  "She  is  overwrought  from 
having  brooded  over  this  matter  much  more 
than  it  deserves.  I  don't  share  her  sus- 
picion of  you  and  you  seem  to  me  to  show 
every  mark  of  a  man  speaking  honestly 
what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth.  But  you 
will  pardon  me  if  I  say  I  do  not  quite 
understand  how  it  can  all  be  true." 

They  had  all  risen  and  Gordon  was 
looking  straight  down  into  the  little  physi- 
cian's eyes  with  an  expression  so  serious 
and  solemn  that  Henrietta  caught  her 
breath,  intently  listening  for  what  he  was 
about  to  say. 

"No,"  he  replied,  slowly,  gravely,  "I 
do  not  wonder  that  you  do  not  understand. 
Neither  do  I." 

Professional  inquiry  was  in  the  keen 
glance  with  which  Dr.  Annister  searched 
for  an  instant  his  visitor's  face  and  eyes. 


MILDRED  IS  MILITANT      197 

Henrietta,  watching  him,  guessed  that  he 
was  probing  for  some  sign  of  mental 
aberration.  But  apparently  he  was  satis- 
fied on  that  score,  for  as  he  followed  them 
out  he  gave  her  a  reassuring  pat  upon  the 
arm. 

"Well,"  he  said  more  cheerfully,  " since 
this  is  all  you  can  tell  us,  we  shall  have  to 
wait  with  what  patience  we  can  for  Mr. 
Brand's  return.  But  I  will  tell  you  frankly, 
Mr.  Gordon,  that  I,  at  least,  have  confidence 
in  you  and  accept  your  assurances." 

He  did  not  tell  them,  however,  by  what 
course  of  reasoning  he  had  quickly  come  to 
this  conclusion.  That  was  something  to  be 
kept  closely  locked  in  his  own  breast  until 
he  should  see  Felix  Brand  again.  For 
he  had  decided  that  the  most  probable 
key  to  the  mystery  was  that  his  daughter's 
betrothed  was  indulging  in  some  secret 
form  of  debauchery,  perhaps  solitary  drunk- 
enness, perhaps  indulgence  in  some  drug, 
perhaps  mere  beastliness,  and  that  this 
fact  was  known  to  his  intimate  friend, 
Hugh  Gordon,who,in  single-minded  loyalty, 
was  trying  to  protect  him.  A  normal 
man's  disgust  at  such  a  course  of  conduct, 


198     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

thought  the  doctor,  would  explain  the 
antipathy  which  he  was  often  unable  to 
conceal  when  Brand's  name  was  mentioned. 

Henrietta  thought  her  companion  some- 
what abstracted  on  their  way  down  town, 
and  unusually  serious,  even  for  him,  who 
was  accustomed  to  take,  as  she  had  already 
learned,  a  serious  view  of  himself  and  the 
world.  He  crossed  the  ferry  with  her, 
and  not  until  they  had  ensconced  them- 
selves in  a  quiet  corner  of  the  boat's  upper 
deck  did  he  seem  to  settle  the  question 
which  had  been  disturbing  his  mind.  But 
settled  she  decided  it  must  be,  for  he  now 
gave  himself  up  to  enjoyment  of  her 
society. 

When  they  landed  he  walked  with  her 
to  her  trolley  car,  where  they  stood,  still 
talking,  until  the  motorman  began  making 
preparations  to  start. 

"Good-bye,"  he  said  unsmilingly,  as 
he  held  out  his  hand.  "I  shall  see  you 
again  sometime,  but  I  fear  it  will  not  be 


soon." 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THERE  Is   NOT  ROOM  FOR  Us  BOTH 


shaU  I  do?"  Henrietta 
Marne  exclaimed  aloud  as  she 
looked  despairingly  at  the 
papers  that  littered  her  desk.  "Here  are 
half  a  dozen  letters,  this  morning,  that 
ought  to  have  his  immediate  attention, 
to  say  nothing  of  all  the  others  that  I've 
got  stacked  away  in  this  drawer.  Well, 
I'll  just  have  to  keep  on  as  I've  done  before 
and  answer  them  in  my  own  name,  saying 
that  Mr.  Brand  is  temporarily  out  of  the 
city  and  as  soon  as  he  returns,  etc.  If  he 
doesn't  come  back  soon,"  she  grumbled 
on  as  she  seated  herself  at  the  typewriter, 
"I'll  be  as  hysterical  as  Mildred  is,  though 
I'm  not  in  love  with  him." 

She  did  what  she  could  with  the  morn- 
ing's mail,  looking  at  one  envelope  as  she 
carefully  put  it  away  unopened,  with  more 
than  a  little  interest  and  curiosity,  as  she 
saw  on  its  upper  corner  the  firm  name  of 

(199) 


200     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Gordon  and  Rotherley."  After  she  had 
finished  the  letter  writing  she  busied  herself 
for  an  hour  with  such  duties  as  it  was 
possible  for  her  to  take  up. 

The  architect's  suite  of  offices  was  on  an 
upper  floor  of  a  high  building  and  from  its 
windows  one's  vision  soared  far  over  the 
city  southward  and  westward.  Henrietta 
paused  now  and  then  in  the  course  of  her 
work  to  forget  her  anxieties  in  the  sights 
and  thoughts  that  greeted  her  in  that  wide 
view.  Down  below,  at  the  bottom  of  the 
street  canyons,  people  and  vehicles  were 
rushing  back  and  forth. 

But  her  eyes  never  rested  long  upon  them. 
Rather,  they  traveled  slowly  out  over  the 
mighty  plain  of  roofs,  broken  by  chimneys 
and  spires,  by  great,  square  buttes  of  build- 
ings, by  domes,  turrets  and  towers,  across 
the  bay,  gleaming  silver-white  or  glowing 
copper-red  in  the  sun,  on  to  where  the  swell- 
ing hills  of  Staten  Island  loomed  dimly 
against  the  horizon. 

In  the  brilliant  sunshine  a  thousand 
plumes  of  cloud-white  steam  waved  gaily 
above  the  castellated  plain  of  roofs  and 
shook  out  their  tendrils  in  the  breeze. 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"   201 

"  Peace  pipes"  Henrietta  some  tines  called 
them  to  herself,  as  she  thought  of  all  that 
their  fragile  beauty,  forever  dissolving  and 
forever  being  renewed,  meant  to  the  city 
beneath  them.  She  liked  to  think  of  them, 
as  she  watched  them  curling  and  waving 
upward  toward  the  blue,  as  a  sign  and  com- 
pact of  earth's  peace  and  good-will. 

Her  bent  of  mind  was  much  more  prac- 
tical than  imaginative,  but  she  could  never 
look  out  over  this  scene  without  feeling  her 
nerves  thrill  with  vague  consciousness  of 
the  titantic  energies  ceaselessly  grinding, 
striving,  achieving,  beneath  that  surface  of 
roofs  and  towers.  And  now,  as  always 
when  she  stopped  to  gaze  from  her  window 
for  a  few  moments,  she  felt  her  own  pulses 
quicken  in  response  and  her  own  inward 
being  stir,  as  if  those  waving  white  plumes 
were  trumpet  calls  to  activity. 

She  turned  from  the  window,  more  rest- 
less than  before,  impatient  with  the  neces- 
sity of  merely  sitting  there  and  waiting.  In 
Brand's  private  room  the  books  she  had  got 
for  him  three  weeks  before  still  lay  ranged 
upon  his  desk,  in  readiness  for  his  return 
at  any  moment.  In  her  spare  hours  she  had 


202      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

been  reading  some  of  them  herself  and  now 
she  went  to  get  one  as  the  best  way  in 
which  to  put  in  her  time.  As  she  brought 
it  back  to  her  own  room  her  thoughts, 
as  they  did  a  hundred  times  a  day,  hovered 
over  and  around  her  various  speculations 
concerning  the  mystery  of  her  employer's 
absence. 

"I  wonder,"  they  presently  ran,  "if  it 
could  be  possible  that  he  is  hiding  some- 
where in  the  city  just  to  indulge  in  some 
sort  of  orgy."  And  this  time  denial  of  such 
a  possibility  did  not,  as  formerly,  spring  up 
spontaneously  in  her  mind.  "I  don't  like 
to  think  he  could  be  that  sort  of  a  man," 
she  temporized  with  her  budding  doubt, 
"for  he  always  seems  so  refined  and  thor- 
oughly nice,  and  he's  always  been  such  a 
perfect  gentleman  to  me.  But  it's  evident 
that  Mr.  Gordon,  who  knows  him  so  well, 
hasn't  a  very  high  opinion  of  him,  except 
in  his  art." 

The  telephone  broke  in  upon  her  musing, 
and  as  she  put  the  receiver  to  her  ear  and 
said  "hello"  she  was  almost  as  much 
astonished  as  delighted  to  hear  in  reply  the 
voice  of  Felix  Brand  himself.  He  told  her 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"   203 

that  he  had  just  got  home,  after  another 
beastly  trip  into  the  back  woods  of  West 
Virginia,  where  he  had  had  an  accident.  He 
had  slipped  and  sprained  his  ankle — no,  it 
was  nothing  serious,  and  was  all  right  now, 
but  it  had  kept  him  a  prisoner  for  nearly 
two  weeks  in  a  mountain  cabin  a  thousand 
miles  from  anywhere,  and  he  would  be 
at  the  office  as  soon  as  he  had  had  his 
luncheon. 

Glad  as  she  was  that  he  was  there  once 
more  to  take  up  the  matters  that  needed  his 
attention  so  badly,  Henrietta  was  almost 
afraid  to  face  him,  when  she  heard  his  voice 
in  the  outer  room,  lest  there  might  be  that 
in  his  appearance  which  would  give  form 
and  force  to  the  doubts  that  were  stirring 
in  her  mind. 

But  he  seemed  no  different  from  his 
usual,  affable  and  well-dressed  self.  He 
wore,  in  all  seasons,  very  dark  or  black 
clothing,  which  was  always  in  perfect  condi- 
tion, and  fitted  his  well-proportioned  figure 
trimly  and  closely  rather  than  with  the 
looser  English  cut.  His  dark  eyes  looked 
down  upon  her  with  their  usual  caressing 
smile  and  his  clean-shaven  face,  with  its 


204     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

finely  modeled,  regular  features,  was  as 
handsome,  as  refined,  as  ever. 

But,  no, — his  secretary  was  conscious  of 
something  in  its  expression  she  had  never 
noticed  there  before.  What  with  the  rejoic- 
ing that  filled  her  heart  and  the  work  that 
kept  her  hands  and  brain  busy  all  the  rest 
of  the  day,  she  had  not  time  to  think  what 
it  was,  or  to  give  it  any  definite  form  in  her 
thoughts,  until  her  homeward  trip  by  sub- 
way, ferry  and  trolley  gave  her  leisure  to 
scan  closely  the  happenings  of  the  after- 
noon. 

Even  then  she  merely  said  to  herself  that 
there  was  something  in  his  face  and  eyes 
that  did  not  seem  quite  like  him,  something 
that  was  not  so  "nice"  as  he  had  always 
seemed  to  be.  She  did  not  know  enough 
about  the  evil  undercurrents  of  life  to  give 
the  thing  more  specific  definition.  But  she 
did  know  that,  whatever  it  was,  it  stirred, 
deep  within  her,  a  faint  sense  of  repulsion. 

"Did  you  get  my  letter?"  was  one  of  the 
first  things  he  said  to  her. 

"No,  Mr.  Brand,  I've  heard  nothing  at 
all  from  you  since  you  left." 

"You  didn't?     That's  queer.     I  gave  it 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"   205 

to  the  porter  to  mail  and  he  probably  for- 
got all  about  it.  I  went  away  so  hurriedly 
I  didn't  have  time  to  write  until  after  I  got 
aboard  the  train.  There  were  some  direc- 
tions in  it  about  the  work  here.  Well, 
we'll  have  to  go  back  and  take  things  up 
where  we  left  off.  And  the  first  thing  is 
that  letter  I  wrote  and  asked  you  not  to 
send.  Where  is  it?" 

"Oh,  I  ventured  to  mail  that — I  knew 
how  important  it  was,  and  I  found  out 
enough  about  the  business  to  feel  sure  you 
would  want  me  to." 

"  You  did !    How  fortunate !" 

"Then  it  was  all  right?  I  am  so  glad! 
But  I  don't  deserve  all  the  credit.  Your 
friend,  Mr.  Hugh  Gordon,  was  here " 

"What!  That  feUow?  Did  he  dare  to 
come  here?" 

The  start,  the  sudden  turn,  the  sharp 
exclamation  with  which  Brand  broke  into 
her  sentence  were  so  different  from  his 
habitual  manner  of  deliberate  movement 
and  courteous  speech  that  Henrietta  gazed 
at  him  in  amazement.  Surprise  and  in- 
dignation sat  upon  his  countenance. 

"Why,   yes,"   she   faltered.      "He   was 


206     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

here  several  times.  The  first  time,  a  few 
days  after  you  left,  he  told  me  he  knew  you 
wanted  that  letter  sent/' 

She  went  on  to  repeat  what  Gordon  had 
told  her  and  ended  with:  "Of  course,  I 
didn't  take  his  word  for  it  entirely,  but 
after  what  he  told  me  I  was  able  to  find 
out  enough  to  make  me  feel  sure  it  was  the 
right  thing  to  do." 

"You  did  quite  right,"  he  told  her  cor- 
dially. "But  I  am  surprised  to  learn  of 
his  doing,  for  me,  a  friendly  act  like  that. 
You  said  he  was  here  afterwards?" 

"Yes,  several  times.  He  came  to  tell  me 
that  you  were  quite  safe  and  well  and  would 
return  before  long.  I  was  very  glad  to 
have  the  assurance,  for,  of  course,  I  couldn't 
help  being  anxious." 

He  opened  his  mouth  as  if  to  speak, 
closed  it  again  suddenly,  then,  as  he  busied 
his  hands  with  some  papers  on  his  desk, 
took  sudden  resolution  and,  though  his 
face  paled,  said  in  a  casual  way: 

"Did  he  tell  you  where  I  was?" 

"He  said  he  didn't  know  where  you  were, 
but  that  he  did  know  positively  that  if 
anything  should  happen  to  you  he  would 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"   207 

be  the  first  person  to  know  anything  about 
it.  I  felt  so  much  less  anxious  after  that." 

"Yes,  it  was  quite  true,  what  he  said," 
Brand  assented  slowly.  He  hesitated 
again,  as  if  on  the  verge  of  farther  speech, 
and  Henrietta  waited.  After  a  moment  he 
turned  to  her  a  face  out  of  which  he  seemed 
purposely  to  have  forced  all  expression  and 
asked: 

"How  did  he  impress  you?  Do  you 
think  he  looks  like  me?  Some  people  say 
he  does." 

"Oh,  he  impressed  me  very  favorably, 
indeed.  He  seemed  so  sincere  and  so  kind 
and  so  much  in  earnest.  No,  I  didn't 
think  he  looked  like  you,  except  in  a 
general  way.  His  features,  perhaps,  are 
something  like  yours,  but  he  himself  is  so 
different,  his  manner,  his  expression— 
everything." 

She  spoke  interestedly,  the  color  rising 
in  her  cheeks,  and  Brand  watched  her 
narrowly.  "Oh,  that  reminds  me,"  she 
exclaimed,  "there's  a  letter  for  you  from 
him.  It's  in  my  desk." 

She  went  to  get  it  and  as  her  employer's 
gaze  followed  her  his  eyes  widened  and  his 


208     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

face  grew  ashen.  "My  God!"  he  muttered, 
and  there  was  consternation  in  his  whis- 
pered tone.  Then  sudden  anger  flashed 
over  him.  Henrietta  felt  it  quivering  in  his 
tones  as  he  said,  when  she  gave  him  the 
envelope: 

"  Thank  you,  Miss  Marne.  You  did 
just  right  about  mailing  that  letter,  and  I 
am  much  pleased  that  you  did.  But  here- 
after don't  trust  that  fellow  Gordon  in  any 
way.  For  all  his  pretense  of  friendship,  he 
is  the  worst  enemy  I  have  and  would  stop 
at  nothing  to  injure  me.  Hereafter  he 
must  not  be  allowed  to  enter  these  rooms. 
Will  you  please  tell  the  boy  that  these  are 
my  orders — that  Hugh  Gordon  must  be  put 
out  at  once  if  he  attempts  to  come  inside 
my  door  again." 

Henrietta  noticed  that  the  architect  took 
the  letter  she  gave  him  with  a  hand  that 
trembled  slightly,  cast  at  it  a  single  frown- 
ing, hostile  glance  and  hastily  but  care- 
fully put  it  away  in  his  breast  pocket.  She 
remembered  that  just  so  had  he  looked  at 
the  previous  letter  from  Gordon,  and  with 
just  the  same  angry  care  had  put  it  away 
unopened. 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"    209 

In  that  inner  pocket  it  remained  un- 
touched, just  as  had  the  former  one,  by 
turns  searing  his  very  heart  with  impotent 
anger  and  chilling  it  with  fear,  until  a  late 
hour  of  the  night,  when  he  sat  alone  be- 
fore his  library  fire.  Then,  at  last,  with 
the  look  and  manner  of  a  man  forced  to 
touch  a  loathed  object,  he  took  it  out  and 
opened  it. 

" Felix  Brand,  I  have  come  to  a  decision," 
the  letter  abruptly  began.  "It  must  be 
either  you  or  I.  Until  lately  I  thought 
there  might  be  room  for  us  both.  But 
there  isn't.  If  you  had  paid  any  attention 
to  what  I  told  you  before,  had  shown  any 
remorse  for  the  evil  you  have  done,  or  any 
intention  of  reforming  your  conduct,  I 
might  have  come  to  a  different  conclusion. 
I  will  say  more  than  that.  If  you  had  felt 
in  your  soul  the  desire  to  get  yourself 
together  and  be  a  real  man  instead  of  a 
source  of  pollution,  and  had  shown  in  your 
thoughts  and  actions  the  willingness  and  the 
ability  to  try  to  make  yourself  over,  I  would 
have  recognized  your  right  to  live. 

"In  that  case,  I  would  have  gone,  per- 
haps not  willingly,  but  feeling  it  right  to 

14 


210     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

go,  back  to  where  I  came  from,  and  I  would 
have  let  you  alone.  At  least,  I  would  have 
tried  to  do  that,  because  I  give  you  full 
credit  for  your  genius,  of  which  I  have  none, 
and  know  its  value  to  the  world.  But  I 
might  not  have  succeeded.  For  I  have 
tasted  life  and  found  it  good  and  the  desire 
to  live,  the  will  to  live,  is  so  strong  within 
me  that  it  might  have  been  stronger  than 
the  sense  of  my  duty,  of  your  right,  or  any- 
thing else. 

"But  it  is  useless  to  speculate  about 
that,  because  you  grow  worse  instead 
of  better.  You  are  like  one  o.f  those 
people  who,  apparently  unharmed  them- 
selves, carry  about  with  them  the  germs  of 
typhoid  and  scatter  destruction  wherever 
they  go.  The  sooner  the  world  is  rid  of  you 
the  better  for  it,  and  the  better  for  you,  too. 

"You  will  be  surprised,  and  probably 
angry,  to  hear  from  your  secretary  that  I 
have  visited  your  office.  I  went,  primarily, 
because  I  wanted  to  meet  Miss  Marne, 
but  also  because  I  knew  she  ought  to  mail 
that  letter  and,  finally,  because  I  wanted  to 
reassure  her  about  your  absence  and  pre- 
vent any  measures  being  taken  to  search 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"    211 

for  you.  The  first  reason  is  none  of  your 
affair  and  on  the  other  two  counts  you  ought 
to  be  grateful  to  me,  though  I  don't  suppose 
you  will  be.  I  took  some  trouble  to  find 
out  about  the  matters  on  which  that  letter 
bore,  because  I  knew  how  important  you 
considered  them.  You  may  find  it  difficult 
to  believe,  but  it  is  true  that,  although  I 
despise  and  loathe  you,  I  did  not  wish  to 
be  responsible  for  such  smash-up  of  your 
plans  as  longer  delay  in  the  sending  of  your 
letter  would  have  caused.  The  bond 
between  us  is  too  close,  Felix  Brand,  for 
me  not  to  feel  compassion  for  you  some- 
times. 

"I  could  have  kept  you  away  longer 
this  time  if  I  had  not  felt  sorry  for  Miss 
Annister.  It  was  on  her  account  that  I 
let  you  return  when  I  did.  Don't  make 
her  suffer  that  way  again.  If  you  don't 
give  her  beforehand  some  sort  of  plausible 
preparation  for  your  next  absence — for 
there  will  be  another,  and  that  before  long— 
I  shall  enable  her  father  to  find  out  some 
plain  truths  about  you  that  may  complicate 
matters  for  you  in  that  quarter. 

"My  mind  is  made  up,   Felix  Brand. 


212     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

There  is  not  room  in  the  world  for  both 
you  and  me.  I  shall  try  not  to  hurt  you 
publicly  again,  because  it  does  no  good. 
And  efficient  measures  are  the  only  ones 
that  appeal  to  me.  But  I  am  going  to  do 
my  best  to  push  you  off  the  edge  for  good 
and  all.  I  have  doubted  and  hesitated  and 
argued  the  matter  over  and  over  with 
myself  and  tried  to  see  some  way  of  com- 
promise. But  you  will  not  come  my  way 
and  I  loathe  yours.  And  you  know  quite 
well  that  you  yourself  are  responsible  for 
the  whole  business,  even  for  the  fate  that 
awaits  you.  You  will  merely  suffer  the 
consequences  of  your  own  actions.  For  I 
believe  I  shall  win.  I  know  that  you  will 
put  up  a  good  fight,  for  we  have  fought 
before,  and,  so  far,  you  have  won  oftener 
than  I  have.  But  in  the  end,  I  shall  win. 
I  dare  say  you  will  think  it  impertinent  in 
me  to  add  that  I  am  convinced  it  will  be 
for  your  good,  as  well  as  for  the  world's 
benefit,  that  I  should  win.  Nevertheless, 
I  do  think  that  very  thing  and  so  I  can  still 
declare  myself, 

"  Yours  sincerely, 

"HUGH  GORDON." 


"NOT  ROOM  FOR  US  BOTH"   213 

Felix  Brand  read  this  letter  with  an 
interest  that  made  him,  in  spite  of  his 
abhorrence,  go  through  it  a  second  time 
before  he  lifted  his  eyes  from  its  pages.  For 
him  its  mysterious  threats  needed  no  ex- 
planation and  as  he  sensed  the  full  meaning 
of  the  fate  it  predicted,  angry  horror  swept 
over  him. 

He  shuddered  as  he  glanced  apprehen- 
sively about  him,  as  though  fearing  to  see 
take  shape  out  of  the  air  the  intangible 
force  with  which,  on  that  other  night  three 
weeks  before,  he  had  fought  to  the  utmost 
of  his  strength,  only  to  be  overcome  at 
last.  The  memory  of  that  fierce  struggle 
was  upon  him  now,  chilling  his  veins  and 
clutching  his  heart  with  terror.  And  he 
would  have  to  fight  that  invisible,  relentless 
power  over  and  over  again  to  save  himself 
from  the  black-magic  destiny  that  threat- 
ened. Then,  suddenly,  fear  and  horror 
were  swept  away  by  a  frenzy  of  rage  that 
ramped  through  him  all  the  more  fiercely 
because  there  was  nothing  upon  which  it 
could  wreak  itself. 

"You  thief!"  he  cried,  glaring  about  him 
with  bloodshot  eyes.  "You  hypocrite,  to 


214     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

set  yourself  up  as  better  than  I  am!  Do 
you  hear  me?  You  hypocrite,  thief,  mur- 
derer!" 

The  exaltation  of  his  anger  gave  him 
fresh  strength  and  new  confidence  in  him- 
self and  he  tore  the  letter  into  bits  and 
ground  them  beneath  his  heel  as  he  shouted : 

"This  is  what  will  happen  to  you!  It's 
what  you  deserve  and  what  you'll  get,  you 
damned  thief!" 


CHAPTER  XV 

FELIX   BRAND  HAS   A    BAD  QUARTER  OF 
AN  HOUR 

IT  was  evident  to  Dr.  Annister  that 
Felix  Brand  was  having  a  bad  quarter 
of  an  hour.  But  the  little  physician, 
sitting  upright  in  his  capacious  chair,  his 
elbows  on  its  arms  and  his  finger-tips  rest- 
ing against  one  another,  could  not  find  it 
in  his  heart  to  abate  in  the  least  the  pen- 
etrating gaze  of  his  gray  eyes  or  the  gentle 
insistence  of  his  questions.  For  the  longer 
their  talk  continued  the  more  he  became 
convinced  that  the  man  before  him  was  not 
speaking  the  truth  and  the  more  he  felt  it 
necessary,  for  his  daughter's  sake,  to  find 
out  what  was  the  truth. 

"I  am  sorry  to  have  to  tell  you,  Felix," 
said  Dr.  Annister,  in  the  beginning  of  their 
conversation,  "that  I  am  unable  to  feel 
entire  confidence  in  your  explanation  of 
your  long  and  mysterious  absence." 

The  architect  hesitated  for  a  bare  instant 

(215) 


216     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

before  he  turned  to  reply.  The  other  noted 
that  he  had  to  stop  to  think,  that  neither 
movement  nor  answer  was  spontaneous. 

"Do  you  mean  me  to  understand,  Dr. 
Annister,"  he  said  courteously,  "that  you 
think  I  am  lying?" 

"Let's  not  put  it  just  that  way.  Suppose 
we  call  it  the  endeavor  on  your  part  to 
conceal  something  you  don't  want  known — 
the  instinct  of  self-defense.  Morally, 
doubtless,  it  is  the  same  thing.  But  I  am 
not  concerned  just  now  with  the  moral 
nature  of  the  thing  itself.  I  am  much  con- 
cerned, however,  for  Mildred's  sake,  with 
the  nature  of  the  thing  behind  it." 

Brand  shot  a  quick,  uneasy  glance  at  him 
and  moved  restlessly  in  his  chair.  But 
there  was  no  change  in  the  customary,  soft 
modulations  of  his  voice  or  the  urbanity  of 
his  manner  as  he  replied:  "Pardon  me, 
Dr.  Annister,  but  you  are  taking  for 
granted  something  you  have  no  right  to 
assume.  You  know  that  I  am  an  honor- 
able man,  accustomed  to  show  at  least 
ordinary  regard  for  the  truth.  And  there- 
fore I  say  that  you  have  no  right  to  doubt 
my  word  on  mere  suspicion." 


A  BAD  QUARTER  HOUR      217 

"My  suspicion,  if  you  wish  to  call  it  so, 
is  well  enough  grounded  to  deserve,  on  my 
part,  the  most  careful  attention  and,  on 
yours,  entire  respect.  Your  explanation 
seems  to  me  to  be  so  thin  and  full  of  holes 
as  not  to  be  worth  a  moment's  notice.  It 
would  be  puerile  for  me  to  tell  you  how 
many  opportunities  you  would  have  had 
on  the  train,  as  you  were  leaving  the  rail- 
road, when  you  returned  to  it,  and  on  your 
way  home,  to  write  or  to  telegraph  to  me, 
to  Mildred,  or  to  Miss  Marne,  and  give  us 
some  idea  of  your  whereabouts  and  assur- 
ance of  your  safety." 

"I  did  write,  on  the  train,  to  Mildred  and 
also  to  Miss  Marne.  Apparently,  the  let- 
ters were  lost  in  the  mails  or  the  porter 
forgot  to  post  them." 

Dr.  Annister's  finger-tips  patted  one 
another  softly  while  his  eyes  searched  the 
patrician  face  of  his  companion  and  marked 
in  it  signs  of  uneasiness. 

"I  have  always  supposed,"  he  said 
quietly,  "that  a  telegraph  line  runs  beside 
the  railroad  into  West  Virginia,  and  I  have 
not  heard  that  the  wires  were  down  during 
your  absence." 


218     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Felix  Brand  rose  and  with  hands  thrust 
into  his  pockets  moved  uncertainly  from 
one  chair  to  another.  "Mildred  has  entire 
confidence  hi  my  explanation,"  he  said 
with  a  touch  of  defiance  in  his  voice.  "She 
knows  I  would  not  deceive  her." 

"Mildred  is  young,"  her  father  replied 
gently,  "and  ignorant  of  the  evil  of  which 
there  is  such  a  plenty  in  the  world.  She 
is  very,  very  much  in  love  with  her  promised 
husband  and  if  he  told  her  that  black  is 
white  the  dazzle  in  her  eyes  would  make 
her  see  it  white.  But,  Felix,  it  is  just 
because  she  is  so  young,  so  innocent  and  so 
much  at  the  mercy  of  her  loving  heart  that 
I  must  speak  plainly  to  you.  I  don't 
expect  you  to  be  entirely  worthy  of  such 
a  wealth  of  pure  young  love  as  she  gives 
you.  The  man  doesn't  live  who  is  clean 
enough  in  heart  and  in  life  to  be  worthy 
of  such  a  treasure.  But  I  do  expect  you  to 
be,  Felix,  and  I  must  assure  myself  that 
you  are,  clean  enough  and  honorable  enough 
not  to  blight  all  the  rest  of  her  life.  What 
is  past  is  past,  but  from  now  on  there  must 
be  nothing  that  will  not  bear  the  light  of 
day." 


A  BAD  QUARTER  HOUR     219 

Brand  was  moving  slowly  back  and  forth, 
his  countenance  expressive  of  inward  debate 
and  hesitation.  He  was  asking  himself  if 
it  would  not  be  the  wisest  plan  to  lay  his 
trouble  frankly  before  the  physician  and 
ask  for  his  help.  But  his  pride  and  his 
confidence  in  himself  drew  back  from  such 
a  step. 

No,  he  told  himself,  nobody  must  know. 
It  must  be  kept  in  the  darkest  secrecy — 
suppose  the  thing  should  get  out,  and  into 
the  papers!  His  heart  quaked  at  the 
thought.  And  he  could  not  feel  sure  what 
view  Dr.  Annister  would  take  of  the  truth 
— he  might  forbid  the  marriage  with  Mil- 
dred. No,  he  would  keep  the  truth  locked 
in  his  own  breast  and  fight  his  battle  alone. 
Well,  he  was  sure  of  winning.  It  might 
take  a  little  time,  but  he  had  no  doubt  of 
the  outcome.  Nevertheless,  there  was  some 
uncertainty  in  his  manner,  though  his  cour- 
teous tones  were  firm  enough  as  he  said: 

"If  you  will  not  take  my  word — and  per- 
mit me  to  say,  Dr.  Annister,  that  it  has 
never  been  doubted  before — what  more  can 
I  say?" 

"You   can   tell   me   the   truth,    Felix," 


bluntly  replied  his  prospective  father-in- 
law.  "I  am  fond  of  you,  my  boy,  very 
fond  of  you, — I  think  you  know  that.  I 
am  proud  of  your  genius  and  I  expect  to  see 
you  become  one  of  the  most  famous  archi- 
tects of  our  tune.  More  than  anything 
else  in  the  world  I  want  to  see  my  little 
girl  as  happy,  as  your,  wife,  as  her  love 
deserves  she  should  be.  But  I  must  tell 
you  frankly,  Felix,  that  I  am  afraid.  I  am 
afraid  for  you  and  your  future  and  very 
much  afraid  for  that  of  my  daughter  with 
you.  That's  why  I  feel  I  must  speak  as 
plainly  as  I  am  going  to.  I  wish  you 
would  make  it  easier  for  me  by  meeting  me 
half  way." 

The  architect,  still  moving  about  the 
room  with  slow  restlessness,  stopped  short 
and  cast  a  quick,  suspicious  glance  at  the 
physician.  The  sweat  broke  out  on  his 
forehead  as  the  fear  leaped  into  his  heart 
that  Dr.  Annister  had  guessed  the  truth. 
He  had  to  grope  among  his  panic  thoughts 
for  a  moment  before  he  could  reply.  His 
voice  was  a  little  strained  as  he  said: 

"Meet  you  half  way?  I  don't  know  what 
you  mean?" 


A  BAD   QUARTER  HOUR     221 

Dr.  Annister  leaned  back  in  his  chair 
and  sighed.  But  his  searching  gray  eyes 
did  not  leave  the  other's  face  nor  fail  to 
take  note  there  of  the  frequent  signs  of 
inner  perturbation.  Sadly  he  was  saying 
to  himself  that  everything  in  Brand's 
expression  and  manner  increased  his  fears 
and  justified  his  suspicion. 

"Well,  then,  "he  said,"let  us  come  straight 
to  the  point.  A  look,  an  expression,  a  tell- 
tale sign  that  I  don't  like  has  been  steadily 
growing  stronger  in  your  face  for  the  last 
six  months.  For  the  physician,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  one  who  deals  as  much  as 
I  do  with  the  psychological  results  of  mis- 
living,  a  man's  countenance  becomes  a 
veritable  table  of  contents  for  the  book 
of  his  life.  And  your  face  is  beginning 
to  tell  me  such  a  story  of  self-indulgence 
and  sensuality  as  makes  me  unwilling  to 
give  my  daughter  to  your  arms." 

Brand  turned  a  little  away,  as  if  he  would 
conceal  the  traitor  face  whose  refined  beauty 
this  inquisitor  was  finding  even  less  than 
skin  deep.  "Of  course,"  he  said,  "I  am 
not  as  innocent  as  I  was  a  dozen  years 
ago.  But — what  you  would  have,  Dr. 


222     FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Annister?  A  saint?  You  know  you  would 
have  to  look  far  to  find  one  among  modern 
young  men.  I'm  no  worse  than  the  most 
of  them  and  much  better  than  some." 

The  physician  was  leaning  forward  again 
in  his  chair,  his  finger-tips  tapping.  He 
paid  no  attention  to  his  companion's  defense 
but  pursued  his  own  line  of  thought  with 
an  increasing  tensity  in  his  voice. 

"I  have  been  watching  that  revealing 
table  of  contents  in  your  face  grow  steadily 
plainer  for  the  last  six  months.  After 
each  of  these  long  absences,  for  which  you 
can  give  no  satisfactory  explanation,  the 
expression  has  become,  to  my  eyes,  stronger 
and  more  significant  than  before.  It 
forces  me  to  the  hypothesis,  almost  to  the 
conclusion,  that  you  have  been  spending 
this  time  somewhere  in  the  under-world, 
in  some  sort  of  secret  debauch." 

Brand  wiped  the  starting  beads  of  sweat 
from  his  brow,  and  said,  "I  don't  believe 
you  really  think  me  that  sort  of  man, 
Dr.  Annister!" 

"Or,  possibly,"  the  physician  continued, 
"that  you  have  become  a  victim  to  the 
alcohol  or  one  of  the  drug  habits.  I  don't 


A  BAD  QUARTER  HOUR     223 

see  the  signs  of  that  sort  of  thing  upon 
you,  yet.  But — well,  if  such  is  your  mis- 
fortune, I  wish,  Felix,  that  you  would  con- 
fide in  me.  Such  habits  are  curable  and 
even  if  my  other  hypothesis,  which  your 
physical  appearance  has  forced  me  to, 
should  be  true  we  might  be  able  to  find  its 
cause  in  some  nerve  lesion  susceptible  of 
remedy.  In  either  case,  you  know  as 
well  as  I  do,  Felix,  that  there  is  disaster 
before  you,  physical,  moral  and  mental, 
if  you  keep  on.  Make  a  clean  breast  of 
it,  and  I'll  do  my  best  to  help  you." 

Again  the  temptation  was  assailing  the 
architect's  mind  to  accept  this  proffered 
help  and  shift  his  burden  to  the  shoulders 
of  this  little  but  puissant  man  of  healing. 
Perhaps  those  tapping  fingers  could  make 
him  whole  again.  But  as  he  faced  avowal 
of  the  truth  his  whole  soul  drew  back. 
It  was  impossible — the  one  thing  he  could 
not  do.  Then  came  another  idea,  perhaps 
a  way  out. 

"Suppose — I  do  not  admit  it,  but  sup- 
pose, for  the  sake  of  your  argument,  that 
your  hypothesis  should  be  true.  What 
then — Mildred — what  about " 


224     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Dr.  Annister  sprang  to  his  feet  and  broke 
in  upon  the  other's  stumbling  words  in  a 
voice  whose  low-toned  intensity  gave  his 
listener  an  uncomfortable  thrill:  "Nothing 
could  make  me  happier  than  to  see  my 
child  the  happy  wife  of  the  man  she  loves, 
if  he  deserves  her  love.  But  I'd  rather 
see  her  dead  than  married  to  a  man  of 
gross  and  unclean  life,  who  has  made  him- 
self a  slave  to  seasons  of  secret  debauch!'7 

There  was  silence  for  a  moment  while 
Brand  looked  away,  unwilling  to  meet  the 
physician's  eyes.  His  face  was  pale  and 
he  breathed  as  if  there  were  a  weight  upon 
his  chest.  Again  he  was  considering  open 
confession.  But  when  he  spoke  he  said: 

"Dr.  Annister,  you  are  most  unjust. 
I  told  you  the  truth  about  my  absence. 
On  that  question  there  is  nothing  more 
to  be  said.  But  it  is  my  right  to  know, 
and  I  insist  upon  knowing,  whether  or  not 
you  have  any  basis  whatever  for  these 
insinuations  you  have  been  making,  except 
your  own  suspicions." 

Mildred's  father  gazed  thoughtfully  at 
her  betrothed  for  a  moment  before  he 
replied.  He  was  saying  to  himself  that 


A  BAD  QUARTER  ifoUR     225 

the  man's  words  were  candid  enough  in 
their  import,  but  that,  somehow,  the  speech 
had  not  rung  true.  There  was  no  spark 
of  indignation  in  those  brown  eyes,  that 
seemed  to  have  some  difficulty  in  meeting 
his.  Nor  was  there  any  quiver  of  that 
honest  resentfulness  he  longed  to  see. 
Beneath  Brand's  habitual  manner  of  slightly 
ceremonious  politeness  and  deference  he 
discerned  uncertainty  of  thought  and 
purpose. 

"There's  something  wrong  here,"  the 
physician  was  thinking,  "  something  wofully 
wrong.  He  doesn't  seem  to  feel  the 
monstrosity  of  what  Fve  almost  been 
charging  him  with."  Unconsciously  he 
shook  his  head  sadly  as  he  began  to  speak 
aloud: 

"As  I  told  you  before,  Felix,  with  the 
knowledge  I  have  spent  a  lifetime  of  hard 
work  gaining,  I  don't  need  any  better 
evidence  than  my  own  eyes  can  give.  I 
consider  it  as  worthy  of  confidence  as  any 
information  I  might  have  from  another. 
That  and  my  own  intelligence  are  the 
sole  ground  of  my  fears.  These  did  have, 
however,  some  slight  corroboration  in  the 

15 


226     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

rather  mysterious  manner  and  assurances 
of  your  friend,  Mr.  Hugh  Gordon." 

At  the  sound  of  that  name  Brand  faced 
sharply  round  upon  the  astonished  doctor, 
anger  flaming  in  his  face  and  eyes. 

"That  man!"  he  cried.  "Are  you  taking 
his  word  against  mine?  He  is  my  worst 
enemy,  and  he  will  stop  at  nothing  to 
injure  me.  He  is  a  thief,  a  murderer,  or 
would  be  if  he  dared.  I  demand  that  you 
tell  me  what  he  has  been  charging  me  with!" 

Dr.  Annister  stared  in  amazement  at  this 
flare  of  hostility  and  wrath.  "You  mistake 
me,  Felix, "he  said  quietly,  although  inwardly 
he  was  wondering  much  as  to  the  cause 
of  the  outburst.  "I  did  not  say  he  charged 
you  with  anything,  nor  did  he.  On  the 
contrary,  he  seemed  to  me  to  be  doing  his 
best  to  execute  a  friendly  office  toward  you. 
I  thought  it  strange  that  he  should  be  so 
positive  you  were  in  no  danger  of  any  sort 
and  yet  should  not  know  where  you  were. 
He  seemed  sincere  and  straightforward 
and  the  only  hypothesis  upon  which  I 
could  reconcile  his  two  statements  was 
one  that  strengthened  what  you  call  my 
suspicions." 


A  BAD   QUARTER  HOUR      227 

While  the  doctor  spoke  Brand  had  been 
moving  about  with  quick  steps  and  sharp 
turns,  scowling  and  muttering.  "Oh,  I 
know  the  fellow  goes  about  making  this 
pretense  of  friendship,"  he  said  sullenly, 
"but  there's  no  trust  to  be  put  in  him. 
He  is  bent  on  my  ruin.  But  I'll  get  even 
with  him,  I'll  down  him  yet!" 

He  took  another  turn  or  two,  apparently 
endeavoring  to  get  himself  under  control 
again,  while  Dr.  Annister  regarded  him  with 
gray  brows  wrinkled  thoughtfully.  He 
began  to  feel,  uneasily,  that  there  was 
more  underneath  this  situation  than  he 
had  guessed. 

"Well,  Felix,"  he  said  at  last,  "I  am 
sorry  that  our  conversation  has  had  no 
better  result.  I  hoped  you  would  clear 
this  matter  up  and,  if  you  need  help,  would 
let  me  give  you  whatever  advice  and  aid 
I  could.  Think  the  matter  over  more 
carefully  and  if  you  should  see  it  in  a 
different  light  come  to  me  at  any  time 
and  let  me  see  what  I  can  do  for  you." 

"I  thank  you,  Dr.  Annister.  I  shall 
keep  your  kindness  in  mind,  although 
I  do  not  suppose  I  shall  have  any  more 


228     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

occasion  to  make  use  of  it  in  the  future 
than  I  have  now.  But  Mildred — "  he 
hesitated  as  he  turned  an  anxious  coun- 
tenance upon  his  companion.  "You  are 
not  going  to  forbid  our  marriage  on  account 
of  these  baseless  and  unjust  notions  of 
yours?" 

Down  in  his  heart  Dr.  Annister  was  at 
that  moment  deciding  that  his  daughter 
should  never  become  this  man's  wife  unless 
all  his  apprehensions  and  fears  were  first 
cleared  away.  But  he  feared  the  effect 
upon  Mildred,  especially  at  this  juncture, 
of  a  forced  breaking  of  the  engagement. 
So  he  temporized. 

"No,  I  shall  not  forbid  it,  or  at  least, 
not  now.  But  I  can  not  consent  to  a 
marriage  in  the  early  future,  as  you  have 
both  begged  me  to  do.  You  will  have 
to  wait  a  while  longer,  Felix,  and  prove 
yourself  worthy.  I  don't  like  these  mys- 
terious disappearances." 

After  Brand  had  gone  the  little  doctor 
dropped  down  into  his  favorite  arm-chair 
in  his  usual  attitude  of  profound  thought. 
"Poor  Mildred!  Poor  little  girl!"  he  was 
thinking.  "I  guess  her  mother  had  better 


A  BAD   QUARTER  HOUR      229 

take  her  abroad  this  summer  and  let  us 
see  if  change  and  travel  and  absence  won't 
have  some  effect  on  her  devotion.  It 
would  be  awfully  lonely  for  me  here,  Mil- 
dred would  be  wretchedly  unhappy  and 
Margaret  would  have  a  devil  of  a  time. 
Still,  the  experiment  will  be  worth  trying." 


CHAPTER  XVI 
MRS.  FENLOW  Is  ANGRY 

4tlT  "TARRY,  dear,  do  please  conceal 
I  I  the  newspaper  in  your  hand- 

•*•  -**  bag  and  carry  it  off  with  you," 
said  Isabella  Marne  as  her  sister  entered  the 
dining  room.  The  sun  shone  in  upon  a 
window  full  of  blooming  plants,  a  bowl 
of  daffodils  glowed  upon  the  table  and  the 
whole  room  looked  as  cheerful  and  buoyant, 
as  dainty  and  pleasing  as  did  the  little 
lady  in  a  pink  and  white  muslin  gown 
who  was  putting  the  last  touches  to  the 
breakfast  table.  "  Mother  is  coming  down 
this  morning,"  she  went  on,  "and  I  don't 
want  her  to  see  it." 

"0,  dear!"  exclaimed  Henrietta  as  she 
glanced  at  the  head  lines.  "No,  indeed, 
mother  musn't  see  this.  It  would  worry 
her  too  much.  Have  you  read  it,  Bella? 
Was  he  hurt?" 

"The  account  says  Mr.  Brand  wasn't 
hurt  at  all.  But  some  of  the  others  were — 

(230) 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    231 

one  rather  badly,  and  Miss  Andrews  had 
her  scalp  cut.  I  hope  it  won't  spoil  her 
beauty." 

"It  must  have  been  a  narrow  escape 
for  them  all,"  Henrietta  commented  in 
shocked  tones  as  she  glanced  down  the 
column.  "Poor  Mildred!  She  will  be 
wild  with  anxiety  and  jealousy!  You  know, 
Bella,  she  can't  bear  for  another  woman 
to  have  a  smile  from  him,  or  a  little  atten- 
tion of  any  sort." 

"Sh-h-h!  Mother's  coming!  Do  hide 
the  paper  quick  and  please  talk  real  fast 
all  through  breakfast,  so  she  won't  think 
to  ask  for  it  until  after  you're  gone.  Mother 
would  never,  never  let  me  go  out  with  him 
in  his  auto  again  if  she  knew  about  this 
accident." 

"I  don't  think  you  ought  to,  anyway, 
Bella.  I  wish  you  wouldn't." 

"What  harm  does  it  do?  And  it  gives 
me  a  little  fun — about  all  I  ever  have, 
you  know.  Delia  is  having  another  season 
of  introspection,"  she  went  on  laughingly 
as  Mrs.  Marne  entered  the  room  and  all 
three  seated  themselves  at  the  table.  "It 
has  lasted  two  days  already  and  I  'm  trem- 


232     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

bling  with  anxiety  as  to  what  will  happen 
next.  She  was  in  such  a  brown  study 
this  morning  that  she  would  have  sugared 
the  eggs  and  salted  the  coffee  if  I  hadn't 
been  on  the  watch." 

"Do  you  think  she's  making  up  her  mind 
again  to  leave  us?"  said  Mrs.  Marne  ap- 
prehensively. 

"Oh,  Delia's  all  right,  except  when  she 
gets  uneasy  about  the  scarcity  of  matri- 
monial chances  in  this  neighborhood.  She 
doesn't  really  want  to  marry,  at  least 
not  now,  but  she  likes  to  think  she  could 
if  she  wanted  to  and  she  likes  to  see  a  new 
man  once  in  a  while,  as  she  says,  'to  pass 
a  word  with/  And  I  sympathize  with 
her,  even  if  I  do  have  three  letters  a  week 
from  Warren." 

"Bella!"  exclaimed  her  mother,  but  with 
more  amusement  than  reproof  in  her  voice. 

"You  would,  too,  if  you  were  twenty-five 
years  younger,"  said  Bella,  leaning  over 
to  pat  her  mother's  arm  affectionately. 
"Anyway,  I  prove  my  sympathy  with 
Delia  by  bringing  to  her  all  the  stray  crumbs 
of  comfort  I  can  find.  I  haven't  told  her 
yet — I'm  waiting  for  her  fit  of  introspec- 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY     233 

tion  to  reach  the  acute  stage — but  the 
grocer  has  got  a  new  delivery  boy,  a  nice 
young  man,  good-looking  and  polite.  I 
wish  somebody  would  be  that  kind  to  me!" 
she  laughed,  with  a  whimsical  pout  of  her 
pretty  lips.  "  Harry,  if  Mr.  Brand  says 
anything  to  you  today  about  coming  over 
here  in  his  motor-car — "  Henrietta  looked 
up  with  a  disapproving  lift  of  her  eyebrows 
and  saw  a  sparkle  of  defiant  mischief  danc- 
ing in  her  sister's  blue  eyes — "just  tell 
him,  please,"  Bella  proceeded  with  a  toss 
of  her  head,  "that  my  physician  has  ordered 
me  to  take  an  auto  ride  today  as  the  only 
means  of  saving  my  life!" 

It  was  mid-April  and  the  very  air  thrilled 
with  the  hurry  and  promise  of  the  spring 
that  was  making  ready  to  leap  at  a  single 
bound — would  it  be  tomorrow,  in  three 
days,  next  week? — from  swelling  bud  and 
bronzing  tree  into  full  flower  and  leafage. 
As  Henrietta  hastened  down  the  street 
beneath  budding  trees  busy  at  their  yearly 
miracle  and  past  little  green  lawns  with  their 
beds  of  crocuses  and  snowdrops  and  tulips, 
the  splendid  caressing  sunshine  bathed 
her  in  its  gaiety,  the  smell  of  freshly 


234     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

turned  earth  challenged  her  to  buoyant 
mood  and  the  singing  and  fluttering  and 
twittering  of  birds  called  her  to  equal 
delight  in  the  radiant  season.  But  all 
was  not  well  with  her  world  and  she  was 
more  conscious  of  the  anxiety  in  her  heart 
than  of  the  call  of  the  spring  that  was 
storming  at  her  senses. 

True,  she  could  begin  to  look  forward 
now  with  reasonable  surety,  she  told  her- 
self, to  the  last  payment,  in  a  very  few 
months,  upon  their  cottage  with  its  little 
lawn  and  garden,  and  that  would  make 
sure,  whatever  might  happen,  a  home  for 
her  mother.  Bella  would  probably  marry 
within  a  year  the  young  physician  to  whom 
she  had  been  engaged  so  long.  They  had 
waited  for  his  graduation  from  the  medical 
school  of  Harvard  and  now  he  wanted  to  be 
sure  of  a  good  enough  practice  to  feel  war- 
ranted in  marrying.  The  delay  had  been 
necessary,  too,  on  Bella's  part,  for  her 
help  in  the  care  of  their  mother  had  been 
indispensable.  But  their  improving  finan- 
cial prospects  had  acted  like  a  magic  draught 
upon  Mrs.  Marne  and  now,  as  she  felt  more 
and  more  assured  of  Henrietta's  ability 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    235 

and  success,  she  was  rapidly  growing  so 
much  better  and  stronger  that  she  would 
soon  be  able  to  take  care  of  their  house- 
keeping and  leave  Bella  free  to  marry 
as  soon  as  her  fiance*  could  offer  her  a  home. 

But  Henrietta  was  so  anxious  about 
other  things  that  these  untangling  per- 
plexities gave  her  small  comfort.  Her 
sisterly  caution  told  her  it  was  not  pru- 
dent for  Isabella  to  go  so  frequently  with 
Felix  Brand  in  his  automobile.  Twice 
since  Brand's  return  from  his  last  absence 
had  she  found,  when  she  reached  home 
at  the  end  of  the  day,  that  Bella  had  just 
returned  from  a  long  drive,  wherein  Brand's 
machine  had  apparently  torn  to  tatters 
all  speed  laws  and  appeared  to  onlookers 
as  a  mere  streak  of  color.  After  such 
a  trip  Bella's  heightened  spirits,  Henrietta 
thought,  made  her  very  lovely  and  bewitch- 
ing, with  the  flush  in  her  cheeks,  the  sparkle 
in  her  eyes  and  her  merry  talk. 

"She's  young  and  gay-spirited  and  has  so 
few  pleasures,"  Henrietta  thought,  regard- 
less of  the  fact  that  she  herself  was  younger 
and  had  just  as  few,  "that  I  feel  awfully 
mean  to  object  to  anything  that  seems  so 


236     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

innocent.  But  it  is  reckless  of  him  to  go 
so  fast,  and  this  accident  last  night — oh, 
I'm  afraid  it's  dangerous.  And  then  there's 
Mildred — if  he  was  engaged  to  anybody 
else  I  shouldn't  think  anything  about  that; 
but — well,  mother  thinks  it's  all  right  and 
lovely  of  him  to  give  Bella  a  little  outing 
now  and  then;  and  if  it  wasn't  I  suppose 
he  wouldn't  do  it." 

But  on  this  last  point  Henrietta  was 
not  without  uneasiness.  For  little  rifts 
were  beginning  to  appear  in  that  perfect 
confidence  she  had  felt  until  recently  in 
her  employer.  She  had  thought  him  the 
soul  of  uprightness  and  honor,  but  in  his 
business  affairs,  nearly  all  of  which  passed 
through  her  hands,  she  knew  that  he  had 
begun  to  make  use  of  the  barest  falsehoods 
and  to  practice  evasions  and  tricks  that 
made  her  blush  with  shame  to  be  the 
medium  by  which  they  were  transmitted 
to  paper. 

Simple,  sturdy  forthrightness  being  the 
backbone  of  Henrietta's  character,  she 
could  not  help  feeling  as  if  she  were  an 
accomplice  in  his  shiftiness  and  untruths 
when  she  typed  and  mailed  his  letters. 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    237 

She  told  herself  that  it  was  none  of  her 
affair,  that  she  was  no  more  than  a  machine 
in  the  work  she  did  for  him  and  that  to 
look  after  her  own  morals  was  all  that 
was  incumbent  upon  her.  Nevertheless, 
she  was  a  good  deal  disturbed  about  it 
on  this  bright  morning. 

"He  seems  so  different  from  what  he 
was  a  few  months  ago,"  she  thought  with 
a  sigh.  "I  don't  understand  why  he 
should  change  so.  I  almost  begin  to  feel 
like  trying  to  find  another  situation.  But 
I  musn't  think  about  it  now,  for  I  can't 
afford  yet  to  take  any  risks." 

Her  thoughts  turned  to  another  phase 
of  Brand's  character  upon  which  also 
she  was  beginning  to  have  doubts.  She 
did  not  see  many  people,  but  a  few  bits  of 
talk  had  reached  her  ears  which  made  her 
wonder  if  the  man  whose  character  she 
had  believed  to  be  almost  ideally  fine 
and  noble  were  not  after  all  a  devotee 
of  sinister  pleasures.  She  had  begun  to 
feel  conscious,  after  his  last  return,  of  a 
feeling  toward  him  of  physical  repulsion 
and  this  she  knew  was  growing  upon  her. 
As  she  recalled  these  things  her  thoughts 


238     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

flashed  uneasily  back  to  her  sister.  She 
felt  wretchedly  ignorant  and  uncertain 
as  to  what  she  ought  to  do  and  wished 
there  were  some  one  better  versed  in 
worldly  knowledge  than  herself  to  whom 
she  could  go  for  advice. 

"I  can't  talk  it  over  with  mother," 
she  thought,  "because  it  would  make  her 
worry  about  it  and  about  me,  and  I  don't 
like  to  go  to  Dr.  Annister,  because  he  has 
enough  troubles  to  listen  to,  with  all  those 
half-crazy  patients  of  his,  and  Mrs.  Annister 
admires  Mr.  Brand  so  much  that  she'd 
be  offended  by  any  suggestion  that  he 
isn't  all  right  and — well,  I  don't  think 
she's  very  level-headed  anyway.  I  wish 
I  could  see  Mr.  Gordon  again — it  seems  a 
long  time.  But  I  ought  not  to  tell  him 
anything  about  these  things  even  if  I 
should  see  him,  since  there  seems  to  be  so 
much  feeling  between  him  and  Mr.  Brand. 

"And  I'm  afraid  Bella  wouldn't  pay  much 
attention  to  anything  that  was  contrary 
to  her  own  desires,  anyway.  I  don't  like 
the  kind  of  influence  Mr.  Brand  seems 
to  be  having  over  her.  I  understand  it, 
because  he  used  to  make  me  feel  that 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    239 

way  myself — dissatisfied  and  selfish  and 
wishful  of  all  sorts  of  delightful  things 
that  I  couldn't  have.  Well,  I  went  through 
it  all  right,  without  any  bad  results  except 
my  own  ugly  feelings;  and  she's  so  dear 
and  sweet  and  so  happy-natured  I  guess 
she  will,  too,  after  a  little." 

She  reached  the  avenue  where  ran  the 
trolley  line  that  carried  her  to  the  ferry  and 
saw  that  she  had  just  missed  a  car. 

"Oh,  dear!  Isn't  that  provoking?"  she 
muttered  as  she  watched  it  rattling  on 
its  way.  "And  there  isn't  another  one 
in  sight  yet.  I  hope  I  won't  have  to  wait 
long,  for  I  do  want  to  get  there  early  this 
morning,  there's  so  much  to  do  today." 

Her  thoughts  sped  on  to  her  office  and 
the  duties  that  awaited  her  and  hovered 
over  the  familiar  figure  of  her  employer 
at  work  at  his  desk. 

"I  don't  see,"  she  argued  with  herself, 
"how  it  can  be  true  that  he  is  living  a 
bad  life  when  he  is  working  so  hard." 

She  remembered  how  eagerly  upon  his 
return  he  had  plunged  into  the  work  await- 
ing him  and  with  what  absorption  he  had 
devoted  himself  to  it  ever  since.  Repeat- 


240     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

edly  during  the  last  two  or  three  weeks 
he  had  told  her  that  never  before  had 
he  worked  so  rapidly  and  so  easily  and  with 
such  satisfaction  in  the  results. 

With  keen  pleasure  and  interest  she 
was  watching  his  design  for  the  capitol 
building  take  form  beneath  his  fingers, 
thinking  it  more  beautiful  than  anything 
he  had  done  before.  Once  she  had  told 
him,  laughingly,  that  she  believed  the 
fairies  must  come  in  the  night  and  touch 
his  pencil  with  magic,  else  it  would  not 
be  possible  for  him  to  put  upon  paper 
so  rapidly  a  thing  so  lovely. 

Only  yesterday  he  had  shown  her  the 
finished  cartoon  for  the  front  elevation 
and  with  a  catch  of  her  breath  she  had 
exclaimed,  "Oh,  Mr.  Brand,  it  is  exquisite! 
I  don't  know  why  it  is  so  beautiful,  for 
it  looks  simple,  but,  somehow,  it  seems 
exactly  right." 

And  he  had  nodded  and  smiled  in  a 
pleased  way  and  said: 

:f  Yes,  that's  just  it — that's  what  I  wanted 
to  do.  It's  all  in  the  proportions,  and  I 
think,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life,  I  have 
got  them  just  right." 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    241 

As  she  recalled  the  conversation  an  auto- 
mobile whizzed  past  her,  slowed  down  and 
returned,  and  she  saw  Mrs.  Fenlow  leaning 
out  and  calling  to  her: 

"I  thought  it  was  you,  Miss  Marne! 
Waiting  for  a  trolley,  aren't  you?  Well, 
don't  wait,  jump  in  with  me.  I'm  going 
to  the  city  and  I'll  take  you  right  to  your 
office." 

Henrietta  had  met  Mrs.  Fenlow  a  number 
of  times  during  the  long-drawn-out  time 
when  the  architect  was  endeavoring  to 
meet  her  wishes  with  a  design  for  the 
country  house  she  had  determined  to  build 
up  the  Hudson.  She  had  found  the  elder 
woman's  open  speech  and  breezy  manners 
amusing,  but  she  had  also  conceived  liking 
and  respect  for  the  sincerity  and  warm- 
heartedness that  were  evident  underneath 
a  rather  brusque  and  erratic  exterior. 

She  had  been  pleased  and  touched  also 
by  the  hearty  affection  and  comradeship 
between  Mrs.  Fenlow  and  her  only  son, 
Mark  Fenlow,  her  eldest  child.  Henrietta 
had  met  the  young  man  several  times  in 
her  employer's  office  and  also  at  his  theatre- 
party  and  housewarming  the  previous 

16 


242     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

autumn.  She  knew  that  Mark  had  been 
graduated  from  college  the  previous  spring 
and  afterwards  had  been  taken  into  a  trust 
company  in  which  his  father  was  a  stock- 
holder and  director  and  that  his  mother, 
who  was  very  proud  of  him,  expected  him 
to  climb  the  ladder  rapidly  and  become  an 
important  figure  in  big  financial  operations. 
Henrietta  had  found  him  a  debonair  youth, 
full  of  gay  humor  and  high  spirits  and  hav- 
ing,  apparently,  much  of  the  same  kind  of 
good-heartedness  and  sincerity  which  she 
admired  in  his  mother. 

"Have  you  seen  the  morning  paper?" 
was  Mrs.  Fenlow's  first  remark,  as  Henri- 
etta settled  into  her  seat. 

"You  mean  the  accident  Mr.  Brand  had 
with  his  automobile?  Didn't  they  have  a 
fortunate  escape!" 

"That  man  has  the  luck  of  the  Irish 
army!"  declared  Mrs.  Fenlow. 

"Did  you  notice  that  he  was  the  only  one 
to  escape  without  any  injury,  though  the 
cause  of  it  was  evidently  his  reckless  driv- 
ing? That's  the  way  things  always  happen 
with  him.  He  gets  his  pleasure  and  other 
people  take  the  consequences." 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY     243 

Mrs.  Fenlow's  tone  was  so  sharp  and 
bitter  that  Henrietta  looked  at  her  in  sur- 
prise. There  were  signs  of  trouble  in  her 
face,  which  bore  also  something  of  a  war- 
like aspect.  Dark  hollows  under  her  eyes 
and  little  lines  about  her  mouth  seemed  to 
tell  of  mental  anguish.  But  her  lips  were 
pressed  together  determinedly  and  she  held 
her  head  high. 

"But  he  can't  go  on  like  this  much  longer. 
He's  bound  to  have  a  smash-up  some  of 
these  fine  days." 

"What  do  you  mean,  Mrs.  Fenlow?" 
queried  Henrietta,  wide-eyed. 

Mrs.  Fenlow  had  been  speaking  straight 
ahead  of  her,  into  the  air,  as  if,  absorbed  in 
her  own  bitter  thoughts,  she  had  for  the 
moment  forgotten  her  companion.  At  the 
girl's  question  she  turned  with  a  quick 
movement  suggestive  of  the  swoop  of  a 
bird  of  prey. 

"Pardon  me,  my  dear,  if  I  use  disrepectful 
language  about  your  employer.  The  Good 
Lord  knows  I  have  reason  enough  for  it.  But 
you  needn't  feel  uneasy  because  I  say  it  in 
your  hearing,  for  I'm  going  to  his  office  this 
very  day  to  say  the  same  things,  and  worse, 


244      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

to  his  face.  When  I  think  of  the  way  he's 
used  his  influence  over  Mark — and  I  be- 
lieved him  the  pink  of  perfection  and  was  as 
pleased  as  an  old  fool  over  his  friendship 
for  my  boy!  My  God!" 

Her  voice  sank  to  a  whisper  of  such 
fierce  indignation  that  Henrietta  shrunk  a 
little  away,  staring  in  astonishment  at  her 
set  face  and  quivering  lips. 

"Of  course,"  she  presently  went  on  in  a 
more  natural  tone,  "Mark  ought  to  have 
known  better,  he  ought  to  have  had  more 
sense  and  more  strength  of  character  than 
to  yield  to  that  sort  of  temptation.  But  he 
was  only  a  lad,  and  Felix  Brand  was  old 
enough  to  know  the  danger  there  was  in  it 
for  a  young  fellow  like  that.  And  Mark 
admired  him  so  much  he  thought  whatever 
Brand  did  must  be  all  right." 

She  broke  off  into  sudden  silence  and 
Henrietta  saw  her  wipe  a  tear  from  the 
corner  of  her  eye.  The  girl  was  so  con- 
fused and  embarrasssed  by  these  signs  of 
keen  emotion  and  hidden  trouble  and  so 
ignorant  of  their  cause  that  she  could  think 
of  nothing  that  seemed  well  to  say  or  do, 
and  so  she,  too,  remained  silent  until  pres- 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    245 

ently  the  elder  woman  turned  to  her  again 
and  spoke  more  gently. 

"Don't  mind  me,  my  dear.  I'm  in  great 
trouble — on  Mark's  account.  I've  had  an 
awful  blow,  and  I  don't  know  yet  how  it 
will  all  come  out.  I  don't  want  to  be  unjust 
to  Felix  Brand,  but  I  can't  help  thinking 
that  he's  largely  responsible  for  it.  I 
know  he  was  for  the  beginning  of  the  whole 
thing.  And  I've  found  out  that  poor 
Mark's  not  the  only  one — "  she  was  talking 
off  into  the  air  again,  oblivious  of  the  girl 
beside  her — "who's  paying  for  the  con- 
sequences of  Felix  Brand's  private  pleas- 
ures. It's  time  he  began  to  pay  for  some 
of  them  himself." 

Her  voice,  quivering  with  the  indigna- 
tion and  anguish  she  was  trying  to  conceal, 
subsided  into  a  muttering  whose  words 
Henrietta  could  not  distinguish  and  finally 
she  lapsed  into  silence.  At  the  door  of  the 
building  in  which  was  Brand's  suite  of  offices 
she  said  to  her  companion: 

"I'm  going  up  with  you,  my  dear,  if 
you'll  let  me.  I  want  to  see  Mr.  Brand 
without  delay  and  if  he  isn't  here  yet  I'll 
wait  for  him." 


246     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Miss  Marne,  busy  at  her  desk  with  the 
morning's  mail,  heard  sounds  from  her 
employer's  private  room  during  Mrs.  Fen- 
low's  call  that  betokened  a  change  in  the 
friendly  relations  formerly  existing  between 
them.  She  could  hear  the  woman's  voice 
raised  in  what  seemed  to  be  bitter  denuncia- 
tion and  the  man's  replying  in  sneering 
tones.  These  seemed  so  unlike  Felix  Brand 
that  she  paused  for  a  moment  in  her  work, 
astonished  at  the  unaccustomed  note.  Dur- 
ing the  last  few  weeks  she  had  seen  him 
several  tunes  give  way  to  sudden  temper, 
but  even  these  outbursts,  unprecedented 
though  they  were  in  her  experience  of  him, 
had  not  seemed  to  her  so  foreign  to  his 
usual  affable  manner  and  pleasant  speech 
as  did  the  harsh,  sarcastic  antagonism  of 
the  voice  in  which  she  could  hear  him 
speaking  to  Mrs.  Fenlow. 

"But  it  must  be  Mr.  Brand,"  thought 
his  secretary,  looking  in  puzzled  wonder  at 
the  door  into  his  room,  "for  there's  surely 
nobody  else  in  there." 

As  she  gazed,  held  by  her  surprise,  a 
letter  in  her  hands,  the  wrathful  voices 
rose  again,  now  one,  then  the  other,  and  in 


MRS.  FENLOW  IS  ANGRY    247 

Mrs.  Fenlow's  she  presently  caught  the 
words,  "Hugh  Gordon." 

At  that  came  the  sound  of  the  man 
springing  to  his  feet,  of  an  overturned 
chair  rattling  to  the  floor,  of  a  blow  upon 
his  desk  and  a  loud  and  angry  oath.  The 
girl  started  with  a  whispered  exclamation  of 
amazement  and  horror.  Her  shocked  ears 
heard  her  employer  denouncing  both  Gor- 
don and  his  caller  and  heard  the  rustle  of 
the  woman's  dress  as  she  hurried  across 
the  room. 

In  her  anger  and  indignation  Mrs.  Fenlow 
had  rushed  to  the  first  door  that  met  her 
eyes,  which  chanced  to  be  the  one  into 
Henrietta's  room.  As  she  opened  it  she 
flung  back  over  her  shoulder  at  Brand,  in 
a  white  heat  of  scorn  and  wrath: 

"You  whited  sepulchre!  I'm  done  with 
you  and  all  my  friends  shall  know  what 
you  are!" 

She  rushed  past  Henrietta  without  seem- 
ing to  see  her,  and  on  through  the  outer 
room  into  the  corridor.  The  door  into 
Brand's  office  was  left  wide  open  and 
Henrietta  saw  him  standing  beside  his 
desk,  his  face  so  distorted  with  passion  that 


248     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

for  a  moment  she  doubted  that  it  was  he, 
and,  apparently — and  here  again  she  could 
hardly  believe  her  eyes — shaking  his  fist 
at  his  departing  visitor. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

"WHICH  SHOULD  HAVE  THE  GIFT  OF  LIFE?" 

THERE  was  a  chorus  of  admiration 
and  praise  from  all  over  the  country 
when  Felix  Brand's  design  for  the 
capitol  building  was  published.  It  was 
everywhere  recognized  as  a  signal  achieve- 
ment, far  in  advance  of  anything  he 
had  previously  done,  and  he  himself  was 
acclaimed  as  one  of  the  most  promising 
architects  of  the  time  and  the  most  gifted 
that  America  had  yet  produced.  Other 
reproductions  of  his  recent  work,  business 
buildings,  country  houses,  a  church  and  a 
memorial  structure,  were  made  public  at 
about  the  same  time  and  these  and  the 
capitol  building  aroused  so  much  interest 
that  newspapers  and  magazines  published 
articles  about  him,  with  many  illustrations 
of  his  work  and  criticisms  of  his  art  that 
praised  his  present  accomplishment  in  glow- 
ing terms  and  prophesied  he  would  do  still 
greater  things.  In  him,  it  was  declared, 

(249) 


250     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

had  come  at  last  a  great  American  archi- 
tect, a  man  of  such  originality,  such  skill 
and  such  sense  of  beauty  and  fitness  that, 
if  he  continued  to  give  such  rich  fulfillment 
of  his  early  promise,  he  would  soon  create 
a  distinctly  American  style  of  architecture, 
infused  with  the  national  spirit  and  expres- 
sive of  the  national  ideals,  worthy  to  take 
its  place  among  the  great  architectures  of 
the  world. 

His  secretary  collected  these  articles  and 
kept  them  for  him  to  see  when  he  should 
return.  For  early  in  May,  just  before  this 
round  of  praise  began,  when  she  went  one 
morning  to  the  office  she  found  a  letter  from 
him  saying  that  it  had  suddenly  become 
necessary  for  him  to  go  abroad  at  once  and 
that,  as  he  would  be  sailing  in  the  early 
morning,  he  would  have  to  leave  affairs 
once  more  in  her  charge.  There  were  some 
words  of  praise  for  her  astuteness  in  the 
management  of  his  business  when  he  had 
been  away  at  other  times,  a  few  directions 
concerning  things  he  would  like  her  to  do  or 
to  leave  undone,  a  brief  regret  that  he 
should  have  to  leave  just  now  when  it  was 
most  important  for  him  to  be  on  hand, 


"THE  GIFT  OF  LIFE"       251 

and  the  hope  that  he  would  "not  be  gone 
more  than  three  or  four  weeks  at  most. 
But  there  was  neither  indication  of  where, 
in  that  large  section  of  the  world  covered  by 
"  abroad,"  he  might  be  reached  by  letter  or 
cable,  nor  mention  of  which  one  of  the  sev- 
eral steamers  sailing  that  day  would  bear 
him  to  his  unnamed  destination. 

Henrietta  put  the  letter  down  with  a 
sigh  of  dismay.  "It  is  too  bad,  too  bad!" 
she  exclaimed.  "Just  when  everything  is 
going  nicely  and  he  is  doing  wonderful  work! 
Now  things  will  begin  to  tangle  up  again 
and  people  will  get  impatient,  and  he  will 
lose  a  lot  of  money.  Well,  111  have  to  do 
the  best  I  can  until  he  comes  back." 

But  notwithstanding  her  devotion  to  her 
employer's  interests  and  the  deep  and  gen- 
uine pleasure  she  felt  in  seeing  them  advance 
and  in  knowing  that  she  was  helping  to 
put  them  forward — the  delight  of  any 
honest  worker  in  doing  well  and  successfully 
the  thing  that  he  undertakes  to  do — she 
soon  began  to  be  conscious  of  a  sense  of 
relief  at  being  rid  for  even  a  little  while  of 
Brand's  physical  presence.  After  his  vio- 
lent outburst  against  Mrs.  Fenlow,  Henri- 


252     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

etta  had  felt  her  repugnance  increase  until 
it  amounted  to  positive  aversion.  She  did 
not  know  how  great  had  been  the  nervous 
strain  of  trying  constantly  to  suppress  and 
ignore  this  feeling  until  she  was  relieved  of 
it  by  his  absence. 

"I  wonder,"  she  said  to  herself  on  her 
way  home  a  few  days  later,  "if  I  can 
endure  it  long  enough  after  he  returns  to 
get  entirely  rid  of  that  mortgage.  Well, 
I'll  have  to  wait  until  he  does  return,  any- 
way, and  then  I  ought  to  give  him,  I  sup- 
pose, two  or  three  weeks'  notice.  Perhaps, 
when  he  comes  home  this  time,  he'll  be  more 
as  he  used  to  be  and  it  won't  be  so  difficult. 
I'll  wait  until  then  before  I  decide." 

As  she  came  to  this  conclusion  she  was 
entering  the  ticket  gate  of  the  ferry  waiting 
room  and,  lifting  her  eyes  from  the  dropping 
of  her  ticket  in  the  box,  she  saw  a  young 
man  of  goodly  figure,  dressed  in  a  loose 
fitting  suit  of  gray,  advancing  toward  her 
and  lifting  his  soft  felt  hat.  Even  in  the 
surprise  of  the  moment  she  was  conscious 
of  a  quick  effort  to  keep  out  of  her  coun- 
tenance the  full  measure  of  the  joy  she  felt 
at  this  unexpected  meeting  with  Hugh 


"THE  GIFT  OF  LIFE"        253 

Gordon.  But  she  was  not  successful  enough 
to  hide  all  signs  of  the  pleasure  that  swept 
through  her  and  shone  in  her  smile  of  wel- 
come. 

"Will  you  let  me  cross  the  ferry  with 
you?"  he  said  as  he  guided  her  through  the 
crowd  to  a  vantage  point  near  the  gate. 
"I  did  not  go  to  the  office,  and  I  shall  not 
go  there  again,  because  I  know  what  orders 
Felix  gave  concerning  me  and  I  will  not 
subject  you  to  any  unpleasant  experience 
with  his  violent  temper." 

Henrietta  looked  at  him  in  surprise,  won- 
dering how,  since  there  was  evidently  bitter 
enmity  between  the  two  men,  this  one 
should  have  such  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
characteristics  that  had  but  lately  appeared 
in  the  other. 

"But  the  ferry  boat,"  he  was  saying, 
with  one  of  the  smiles  that  so  rarely  lighted 
his  serious  countenance,  "is  nobody's  pri- 
vate property  and  you  are  the  only  one  who 
can  forbid  me  to  ride  across  the  bay  in  it 
at  just  the  time  when  you  are  going  home." 

He  must  have  read  encouragement  rather 
than  objection  in  her  manner,  for  the  next 
evening  he  was  waiting  for  her  again,  and 


254     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

by  the  end  of  the  week  it  had  become  a 
tacit  understanding  between  them  that  they 
should  meet  thus  and  take  together  the 
ride  across  the  shining  evening  water. 
Golden  red  it  glowed  and  sparkled  all  about 
them  and  spread  a  radiant  path  toward  the 
red  and  gold  of  the  May  sunset.  Behind 
them  Manhattan  reared  its  mighty,  tawny- 
yellow  walls  and  towers  through  the  golden 
haze — Mammon  rising  from  the  waves,  with 
feet  lapped  in  the  rose-gold  waters  and 
front  ablaze  with  the  diamond  dazzle  of  a 
thousand  sunset-lighted  windows. 

It  was  the  month  of  May,  nature's  month 
of  marvels,  when  with  her  magic  wand  she 
strikes  upon  earth,  and  tree,  and  plant,  and 
human  heart,  and  the  indwelling,  ever- 
lasting life  and  youth  gush  forth  in  count- 
less streams  of  leaf  and  bloom  and  song  and 
leaping  spirit.  All  through  the  marvelous 
month  these  two  rode  back  and  forth  every 
day  across  the  enchanted  waters.  For  it 
was  not  long  until  she  began  to  find  him 
waiting  for  her  in  the  morning  also,  at  the 
door  of  the  ferry-house  in  St.  George. 

All  the  world  was  robed  in  the  young 
beauty  of  the  spring,  but  Henrietta  Marne 


"THE  GIFT  OF  LIFE"        255 

soon  discovered  that  for  her  companion  it 
had  but  slight  appeal.  If  she,  thrilled  by 
the  pageant  of  sunset  colors,  glowing  in  the 
sky  and  reflected  in  the  waters  of  the  bay, 
voiced  her  delight  in  it  Gordon's  response 
would  be  polite  but  perfunctory.  He 
would  look  and  make  comment,  but  she 
knew  that  it  left  him  cold.  If  she  wore  a 
flower  at  her  belt  or  her  throat,  chosen 
with  utmost  care  to  make  a  tender  little 
harmony  of  color  with  her  waist  or  her  tie 
or  the  faint  pink  of  her  cheeks,  it  nettled  her 
a  little  that  he  did  not  even  seem  to  see  it. 

"If  I  do  that  at  the  office  when  Mr. 
Brand  is  there,"  she  said  to  herself,  "it's 
the  first  thing  he  sees  and  he  always  speaks 
about  it  and  looks  at  it  with  pleasure  and 
he — doesn't  care  anything  about  me!" 

"I  know,  it  is  a  defect  of  my  nature," 
he  said  one  day  in  response  to  a  little  gentle 
rallying  on  her  part  because  of  his  lack 
of  interest  in  an  evening  panorama  of 
unusual  beauty.  "I  know  I  lose  a  great 
deal  of  the  pleasure  of  living  because  of  it, 
but  I  can't  help  it.  Something  seems  to 
have  been  left  out  of  my  make-up.  But  I 
hope  that  some  time  I  shall  recover  it. 


256     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

You  are  so  sensitive  to  these  things,  perhaps 
you  can  teach  me  how  to  feel  them,  too." 
Their  talk  verged  soon  into  the  more  or 
less  confidential  themes  of  personal  view- 
points, experiences  and  ambitions.  Henri- 
etta noticed  that  Gordon  said  nothing  about 
his  past  life,  about  his  relatives  or  friends 
or  where  he  had  grown  up,  or  gone  to 
school,  or  what  he  had  done  in  his  youth. 
But  he  was  full  of  hopes  and  plans  for  the 
future.  His  brain  was  busy  working  out 
ideas  for  large  industrial  schemes  that 
should  prove  the  possibility  of  combining 
reasonable  profit  for  their  creators  and 
managers  with  ample  wages,  comfortable 
homes  and  expanding  lives  for  their  work- 
ers. In  his  mind  projects  were  taking 
form,  though  vague  as  yet,  for  renovating 
those  noisome  places  of  the  city  where 
human  nature,  undiluted  by  space,  stews 
corrosion  and  corruption  for  its  souls  and 
bodies.  Every  day  he  would  give  her  a 
glimpse  of  one  or  another  of  a  multitude  of 
half  formed  ideas,  perhaps  but  just  con- 
ceived, perhaps  taking  tentative  form,  which 
he  was  eager  to  work  out  and  put  to  prac- 
tical test.  For  the  most  part  they  seemed 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE"        257 

to  her  to  be  an  unusual  combination  of 
business  shrewdness,  just  feeling,  and  altru- 
istic intent.  Apparently  his  aim  in  them 
was  to  attain  the  end  of  social  betterment 
by  means  of  the  co-operative  and  mutually 
profitable  effort  of  all  concerned  in  them. 

He  talked  much  and  with  enthusiasm  of 
these  things  and  Henrietta  soon  found  that 
they  and  kindred  hopes  and  plans  were  the 
purpose  and  the  inspiration  of  his  life. 

"I  have  the  business  instinct,"  he  told 
her  one  day.  "It  is  easy  to  make  money. 
It  is  a  pleasure,  too,  to  busy  one's  mind 
with  large  schemes  and  see  them  coming 
your  way.  But  that  is  nothing  to  the  pleas- 
ure it  will  be  to  set  to  work,  as  I  shall  soon 
be  able  to  do,  upon  some  of  these  schemes 
and  see  them  coming  out  as  I  want  them 
to." 

"Your  pleasure  then  will  be  a  double 
one,"  she  said,  "the  pleasure  of  creating 
something  and  that  of  doing  good  as  well. 
Mr.  Brand  must  have  that  double  pleasure, 
too,  when  he  feels  all  his  faculties  at  work 
and  knows  that  he  is  creating  something 
that  is  beautiful,  as  you  will  feel  that  you 
are  doing  something  good." 

17 


258     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

His  face  darkened  and  his  eyes  flashed  at 
the  sound  of  Brand's  name.  She  felt  that 
he  stiffened,  mind  and  body,  into  hostility. 

" Pardon  me,"  he  said  curtly,  "if  I  am 
not  pleased  with  the  comparison.  I  con- 
sider Felix  Brand,  his  ideas  and  principles 
and  his  mode  of  life,  to  be  so  thoroughly 
detestable  that  even  the  mention  of  his 
name  rouses  my  contempt  and  disgust.  I 
consider  him,"  Gordon  went  on,  his  tones 
lower  and  more  tense,  "a  plague  spot,  a 
source  of  evil  that  would  be  a  menace  to 
any  community." 

"Oh,  Mr.  Gordon!"  she  protested. 
"Aren't  you  exaggerating  dreadfully? 
Aren't  you  prejudiced  against  him?  Think 
of  the  beautiful  buildings  he  creates  and  of 
the  elevating  and  refining  influence  of  such 
noble  and  beautiful  architecture!" 

"I  know,"  he  assented,  "the  man  has 
genius,  great  genius.  He  has  proved  that 
already,  and  he  might  have  gone  farther  in 
his  line  and  done  much  finer  and  greater 
things,  if  he  had  lived  a  different  life.  But 
he  is  bringing  his  fate  upon  himself."  He 
paused  for  an  instant,  and  she,  wondering 
what  he  meant  by  that  last  dark  sentence, 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE"        259 

which  he  had  spoken  in  a  tone  of  the  most 
serious  significance,  was  about  to  ask  him 
for  an  explanation  when  he  turned  upon  her 
abruptly. 

"Tell  me,"  he  demanded,  "do  you  think 
that  a  man  is  to  be  pardoned  for  being  a 
source  of  evil,  for  leading  or  forcing  others 
into  wrong-doing  and  misfortune,  while 
he  keeps  himself  prosperous  and  honored, 
just  because  he  can  create  beautiful  things 
in  art,  or  architecture,  or  music,  or  lit- 
erature? Is  the  world  in  greater  need  of 
being  made  more  beautiful  and  more  pleas- 
urable for  the  few  than  it  is  of  being  made 
better  for  the  many?  Would  you  condone 
a  man  for  deliberately  making  it  worse 
because  he  was  adding  to  its  beauty?" 

Gordon's  intent  gaze  and  the  solemn, 
eager  earnestness  with  which  he  spoke 
appalled  his  listener  ever  so  little.  It  was 
as  if  he  were  asking  these  questions  from 
his  inmost,  deepest  heart. 

"I — I  don't  know  just  what  to  say," 
she  faltered.  "I  never  thought  of  the 
matter  in  that  way  before.  One  doesn't 
like  to  answer  so  serious  a  question  off- 
hand. But — "  she  hesitated  and  felt  her- 


260      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

self  being  swept  into  agreement  by  his  very 
forcefulness  of  character  and  intensity  of 
feeling.  "Why,  yes — I  suppose  you  are 
right.  If  the  world  were  entirely  wicked 
it  would  be  a  failure,  no  matter  how  beauti- 
ful it  might  be." 

"I  was  sure  you  would  agree  with  me," 
he  responded  with  a  look  of  pleased  satis- 
faction. "But  now  I  want  you  to  tell  me 
something  else,"  he  pursued  in  a  gentler 
tone  and  with  a  humbler,  softer  manner. 
"I  want  to  suppose  the  case  of  two  possible 
men  and  I  want  you  to  tell  me  which  of  the 
two  you  think  would  be  the  more  deserving 
of  life." 

He  moved  closer  to  her  and,  leaning 
against  the  deck  rail,  was  looking  into  her 
face  with  an  expression  so  different  from 
any  she  had  ever  seen  in  his  brown  eyes 
before,  wistful  and  beseeching  instead  of 
confident,  alert  and  dauntless,  that  it  set 
her  heart  a-flutter  with  a  sudden,  tantalizing 
half-memory.  Where,  when,  had  she  seen 
brown  eyes  with  that  look  in  them? 

She  groped  after  the  answer  in  the  back 
of  her  mind  while  she  listened  to  his  voice, 
still  with  its  impetuous  tones  unsubdued, 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE0        261 

though  he  seemed  to  be  trying  to  state  his 
hypothetical  case  in  cool,  bare  terms. 

"Suppose  there  were  two  men,"  he  was 
saying,  "and  suppose  that  one  of  them 
possessed  a  genius  for  the  creation  of  noble 
and  beautiful  works  of  art  of  any  sort, 
which  would  afford  great  pleasure  to  many 
people  and  would  refine  and  elevate  their 
tastes.  But  suppose  that  at  the  same  time 
he  was  living  such  a  private,  even  secret, 
life  as  made  him  a  source  of  wickedness  and 
corruption,  an  endless  influence  for  evil. 
Then  would  such  a  man,  do  you  think— 
his  voice  sank  lower  and  thrilled  with 
solemn  earnestness —  "deserve  to  live  rather 
than  the  other  one,  who,  though  he  had  no 
genius  for  the  creation  of  beauty,  was  using 
all  his  powers  to  make  the  world  a  better 
place  for  all  men  to  live  in?  If  both  men 
could  not  have  the  gift  of  life,  Miss  Marne, 
which  do  you  think  ought  to  have  it?" 

She  looked  at  him,  glanced  away,  and 
hesitated,  her  mind  still  bent  on  that  teas- 
ing memory.  "You  are  putting  strange 
riddles  to  me  this  morning,  Mr.  Gordon," 
she  demurred. 

Had  she  ever  seen  a  wild  creature  expect- 


262     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

ing  destruction  at  human  hands?  No, 
surely  not,  she  told  herself,  and  yet  this 
wistful  pleading  expression  might  be  just 
the  look  in  the  eyes  of  an  animal  facing 
death  but  dumbly  begging  for  life. 

Then,  in  a  flash,  it  all  came  back — her 
own  little  parlor,  Billikins  whining  and 
hiding  in  her  skirts  in  mysterious  terror, 
and  Felix  Brand  gazing  at  her  with  all 
the  usual  soft,  caressing  look  of  his  brown 
eyes  curtained  behind  some  absorbing  anx- 
iety and  fear.  But  in  these  eyes  into 
which  she  was  looking  now  there  was 
no  fear,  only  a  longing  that  her  answer 
should  be  what  he  wished.  She  shivered 
as  a  half-sensed  intuition  of  impending 
tragedy  shot  through  her. 

"You — you  make  me  feel  as  if  I  were 
a  judge  and  called  upon  to  pronounce 
sentence  upon  some  one,"  she  said  and 
tried  to  pass  the  situation  off  with  a  little 
laugh  as  she  added,  "Really,  it  isn't  fair!" 

But  he  would  not  have  it  so  and  with 
even  greater  earnestness  and  solemnity 
pressed  his  question  farther:  "Then  we'll 
put  it  another  way.  Suppose  a  mother 
about  to  bear  a  man-child  could  choose 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE"        263 

its  soul  and  the  life  it  was  to  live.  Which 
of  those  two  men  would  a  good,  noble 
woman  wish  her  son  to  be?  Imagine 
yourself  in  such  a  woman's  place,  Miss 
Marne,  and  tell  me,  which  would  be  your 
choice." 

She  felt  the  compelling  force  of  his 
earnestness  and  she  was  moved  by  the 
intense  feeling  evident  in  his  voice,  look 
and  manner.  Her  face  blanched  with  the 
sudden  conviction  that  some  high  conse- 
quence hung  upon  her  answer.  But  she 
took  counsel  bravely  with  herself  for  a 
little  space  as  her  gaze  wandered  across 
the  water. 

"I  think,"  she  replied  slowly,  "yes, 
I'm  quite  sure,  any  good  woman  would  wish 
her  son  to  be  good  rather  than  great.  I 
don't  believe  any  good  woman  would 
hesitate  at  all,  if  it  were  possible  for  her 
to  make  such  a  choice." 

He  straightened  up  and  a  solemn  joy 
overspread  his  eyes  and  face.  "I  thank 
you,  Miss  Marne,"  he  said,  barely  resting 
for  an  instant  one  hand  upon  hers  that  lay 
on  the  rail.  "I  had  little  doubt  what  your 
answer  would  be,  because  you  are  a  good 


woman.  But  I  wanted  to  know  for  a  cer- 
tainty. It  is  my  final  warrant  that  I  am 
right." 

He  said  no  more,  and  Henrietta,  a  little 
awed  by  the  rapt,  triumphant  look  with 
which,  sitting  upright  with  head  thrown 
back,  he  gazed  into  the  distance,  kept 
silence  also.  And  in  a  few  moments  their 
ship  bumped  into  its  berth  and  they  joined 
silently  the  crowd  that  pressed  forward. 

After  that  she  was  conscious  in  his 
manner  toward  her  of  an  increased  air 
of  guardianship.  It  gave  her  a  warm  sense 
of  comfort  and  security  and  she  found 
herself  gradually  confiding  in  it  more  and 
more.  She  even  sought  his  advice,  finally, 
upon  the  intimate  personal  problems  that 
were  troubling  her  so  deeply.  Did  he 
think  she  ought  to  permit  her  sister  to 
motor  with  Mr.  Brand?  Was  it  likely 
that  she  herself  could  find  another  situa- 
tion that  would  carry  her  safely  out  of 
her  financial  difficulties  if  she  should  con- 
tinue to  find  her  work  under  Mr.  Brand 
so  disagreeable? 

"I  hesitate  to  say  anything  to  you  about 
these  things,  because  I  know  how  much 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE"        265 

you  dislike  him,"  she  apologized,  "but 
I  feel  so  uncertain  and  so  much  worried 
about  them,  and  there  is  nobody  else  to 
whom  I  can  go  who  knows  him  as  well 
as  you  do.  His  whole  character  has 
changed  so  much  in  the  last  few  months 
that  he  hardly  seems  to  be  the  same  man. 
I  have  an  uneasy  feeling  that  it  isn't  wise 
for  my  sister  to  go  with  him,  although 
it  does  seem  the  most  innocent  thing  in 
the  world,  and  the  kindest,  for  him  to  stop 
at  our  house,  when  he  has  some  business 
farther  down  the  island,  and  take  Isabella 
for  a  spin.  She  enjoys  it  so  much  and 
she  has  so  few  pleasures.  And  she  and 
mother  have  such  confidence  in  Mr.  Brand 
that  they  feel  sure  he  would  never  ask 
her  to  do  anything  that  wasn't  perfectly 
all  right.  I  felt  that  way,  too,  at  first, 
but  I  don't  now." 

"I  am  glad  you  have  spoken  of  it,"  he 
replied  with  interest,  "for  I  have  been 
thinking  I  ought  to  give  you  some  warn- 
ing before  Felix  returns.  He  is  simply 
serving  a  purpose  of  his  own,  an  utterly 
selfish  purpose,  and  he  is  using  her  to  help 
him  gain  his  end  without  the  least  com- 


266     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

punction.  Don't  let  her  go  again,  Miss 
Marne,  if  you  can  help  it.  I  know  Felix 
Brand  through  and  through,  and  he  is 
not  to  be  trusted." 

Henrietta  could  only  look  at  him  speech- 
less, her  eyes  wide  with  apprehension. 

"Don't  be  alarmed,"  he  hastened  to 
assure  her.  "I  don't  think  there  is  any- 
thing for  you  to  be  uneasy  about,  except 
that  his  influence  is  always  evil—  •"  he  paused 
on  a  raised  inflection  and  looked  at  her 
admiringly.  "One  of  the  reasons,"  he 
went  on  regardless  of  the  abrupt  change, 
"why  I  like  you  and  feel  so  sure  that  you 
are  sound  and  good  and  strong  clear  through 
is  because  you  have  not  yielded  in  the 
least  to  the  subtle  influence  he  has  over 
most  people.  You  have  held  to  your  own 
ideas  of  what  is  right  and  wrong." 

She  blushed  under  his  eyes  and  his 
words.  "I'm  afraid  I  don't  deserve  all 
that  credit.  I  remember  a  time  when  I 
did  have  some  ugly  feelings  and  some 
tempestuous  desires  for  pleasures  that  were 
out  of  my  reach.  But  I  had  too  many 
other  things  to  do  and  to  think  about, 
and  so  I  guess  I  outgrew  them." 


"THE  GIFT  OF  LIFE"        267 

"And  I  guess,  too,  that  they  didn't  find 
congenial  soil  in  your  heart  to  take  root 
in,"  he  added.  "But  you  needn't  be  much 
worried  about  your  sister,  for  I  am  sure 
it  will  not  last  much  longer.  At  the  best— 
or  worst — there  will  not  be  many  more 
opportunities — "  again  he  straightened  up 
and  sent  that  triumphant  glance  of  his 
alert,  confident  eyes  out  across  the  water — 
"in  which  it  will  be  possible  for  him  to 
work  any  evil.  But  he  is  so  thoroughly 
base  that  if  I  were  you  I  would  not  trust 
her  with  him  again." 

Henrietta  wondered  what  he  meant  by 
that  "not  many  more  opportunities,"  but 
forebore  to  ask  him  lest  she  might  uninten- 
tionally pry  into  some  matter  of  which 
he  did  not  wish  to  speak.  Another  enig- 
matical fragment  from  his  secret  thought 
came  out  when  she  asked  his  advice  about 
her  own  relations  with  Brand.  She  told 
him  how  repugnant  she  was  beginning  to 
find  her  work  because — and  here  she  skipped 
lightly  and  diplomatically  over  her  reasons, 
so  that  she  might  not  do  violence  to  her 
own  sense  of  loyalty  to  her  employer- 
she  did  not  now  feel  in  harmony  with 


268     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

his   methods   of   doing   business   and   his 
ways  of  looking  at  a  good  many  things. 

"You  don't  need  to  put  it  in  so  round- 
about a  way,"  he  told  her  impulsively. 
"I  know  all  about  that  change  in  the 
man's  character  and  how  nearly  he  has 
lost  all  sense  of  truth  and  honesty.  Luckily, 
he  still  controls  his  temper  with  you  and 
treats  you  with  respect- 
He  stopped  and  his  whole  manner  sud- 
denly bristled  with  aggressiveness.  In 
his  voice  as  he  spoke  the  next  words  there 
was  a  significant  ring:  "And  I  don't  think 
he'll  do  otherwise.  But  of  course  you 
can't  put  up  much  longer  with  these 
developments  in  him.  I  would  advise 
you  to  look  for  another  position  at  once. 
In  fact,  I  am  sure  you'd  better,  because 
it  won't  be  long  until  Felix  will  not  need 
you." 

She  gazed  at  him  with  such  question  and 
alarm  in  her  eyes,  that  he  returned  her 
look  with  surprise.  "Oh,"  he  exclaimed, 
"I  see.  You  are  puzzled  by  what  I  said. 
I  forgot  for  the  moment, — perhaps  I  have 
before,  too — that  you  do  not  know  all  that 
I  do  about  Felix.  But  don't  be  troubled 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE"        269 

about  it  now.  Some  day  you  shall  know — 
I  shall  tell  you — the  whole  story.  I  dare 
say  it  will  seem  marvelous  to  you  at  first. 
But  you  will  soon  see  how  inevitable  it 
has  all  been.  Felix  will  return  soon,  I 
suppose." 

"Oh,  I  hope  so,"  Henrietta  broke  in. 
"He  has  been  gone  five  weeks  and  his 
affairs  are  in  an  awful  condition!" 

Gordon  nodded.  "Yes,  they  must  be. 
It  is  quite  time  for  him  to  come  back  and 
put  them  in  order.  But  I  warn  you, 
Miss  Marne,  that  it  will  be  wise  for  you 
not  to  mention  my  name  to  him  when 
he  does  return.  He  hates  me  so  furiously 
and  he  has  so  little  control  over  that 
violent  temper  he  has  developed,  that  there 
is  no  telling  what  he  will  say  or  do  if  any 
one  so  much  as  speaks  of  me  in  his  presence. 
You  remember  his  outrageous  conduct  to 
Mrs.  Fenlow?" 

"Oh,  did  Mrs.  Fenlow  tell  you  about 
that?"  Henrietta  asked  with  a  quick  look 
of  surprise  that  was  reminiscent,  too,  of 
the  shock  the  incident  had  given  her.  "I 
thought  she  mentioned  your  name.  Was 
that  what  made  him  so  angry?" 


270     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"That  was  what  caused  his  final  brutal- 
ity. The  trouble  was  about  Mark  Fenlow. 
You  know  how  fond  and  proud  of  him 
his  mother  has  been  and  what  high  expec- 
tations she  has  always  had  for  him.  Felix 
had  got  him  into  the  way  of  gambling 
and  the  boy  had  developed  a  passion  for 
it  which  he  could  not  restrain.  Ever 
since  Felix  has  had  money  he  has  played 
a  good  deal,  and  for  pretty  high  stakes, 
because  of  the  pleasure  he  got  out  of  it. 
But  he  knew  when  to  stop,  just  as  he  did 
with  all  his  vicious  indulgences." 

Gordon's  eyes  were  flashing  and  his  voice 
growing  tense  with  hostile  feeling.  But 
Henrietta  saw  that  he  was  making  a 
strong  effort  to  keep  himself  under  control 
and  to  speak  calmly  about  his  enemy. 

"That  is,"  he  went  on,  "he  used  to  be 
able  to  stop  before  doing  himself  injury. 
He  didn't  care  what  happened  to  others. 
But  he  can't  now.  The  gambler's  mania 
has  got  hold  of  him  in  just  the  same  way 
that  he's  lost  control  of  his  temper,  and 
he's  likely,  if  he  keeps  on,  to  gamble  away 
everything  he's  got.  He  liked  Mark  Fenlow 
and  led  him  into  more  evil  than  just  the 


"THE   GIFT  OF  LIFE"        271 

gambling.  But  it  was  that  that  proved  the 
boy's  ruin.  It  was  the  old  story — playing, 
losing,  borrowing,  financial  difficulties,  the 
temptation  of  money  in  sight,  the  belief 
that  he  could  pay  it  back  the  next  day. 
His  last  filchings,  which  brought  about 
discovery  and  confession  of  the  whole 
business  to  his  mother  and  father,  were 
due  to  the  fact  that  Felix  was  ruthlessly 
pressing  him  to  pay  back  some  borrowed 
money.  That  was  why  Mrs.  Fenlow  went 
up  to  Felix's  office  and  told  him  what  she 
thought  of  him.  Weeks  ago  I  went  to 
the  boy  and  tried  to  reason  with  him  about 
the  way  he  was  going  and  persuade  him 
to  quit,  short  off.  He  told  his  mother 
about  that,  too,  and  that  was  how  she 
happened  to  mention  my  name  in  their 
controversy." 

"Poor  Mrs.  Fenlow!"  said  Henrietta. 
"I  knew  she  must  be  in  some  great  trouble 
that  morning.  But  what  has  become 
of  Mark?" 

"His  father  made  good  his  peculations 
and  hushed  the  matter  all  up,  and  then 
they  sent  him  out  west  to  a  cattle  ranch." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ISABELLA  TAKES  ONE  MORE  RIDE 

HENRIETTA  MARNE  looked  cu- 
riously at  the  envelope  bearing 
the  stamp  of  Hugh  Gordon's  busi- 
ness firm.  "There  is  always  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Gordon  just  before  Mr.  Brand  gets 
back/'  she  said  to  herself,  "so  I  suppose 
he'll  be  here  some  time  today.  If  he  does 
I'll  have  to  decide  about  leaving  him.  But 
there'll  be  such  a  lot  of  work  to  do  it  won't 
be  fair  for  me  to  say  anything  about  going 
till  we  get  things  straightened  out  again." 
On  that  same  June  morning  Penelope 
Brand  was  reading  a  letter  in  a  similar 
envelope.  She  was  out  of  doors,  in  her 
wheel-chair,  in  the  shade  of  that  same 
tree  from  which  she  had  fallen,  years 
before,  to  such  pitiful  maiming  of  her 
body  and  her  life.  Beside  her  was  a  little 
table  holding  some  books,  a  pad  of  paper 
and  a  pencil  and  her  work-basket.  For  here 
she  spent  the  greater  part  of  every  fine 

(272) 


ONE  MORE  RIDE  273 

day,  by  turns  reading,  making  notes,  writ- 
ing, sewing,  and  talking  with  her  mother. 
The  roses  that  grew  along  the  fence  were 
in  bloom  and  a  few  steps  in  the  other 
direction  was  the  little  vegetable  garden 
where  her  mother  worked  when  the  sun 
was  not  too  hot,  so  near  that  they  could 
speak  to  each  other  now  and  then. 

Penelope  was  beginning  to  find  a  new 
pleasure  in  life,  the  deepest  of  all  pleasures 
to  the  woman-heart,  the  pleasure  of  ser- 
vice. For  Hugh  Gordon  had  been  sending 
her  books  treating  of  the  sociological  ques- 
tions in  which  she  had  long  taken  an 
intellectual  interest  and  had  asked  her  to 
make  digests  of  them  for  him,  to  tell  him 
what  she  thought  of  them  and  to  write 
him  at  length  upon  such  of  their  contents 
as  seemed  to  her  of  particular  consequence. 
She  had  had  a  number  of  letters  from 
him  discussing  these  things  and  outlining 
plans  upon  which  he  wanted  her  opinion. 

All  this  was  affording  her  the  keenest 
satisfaction.  Her  mother,  who  had  never 
seen  her  so  genuinely  happy  and  contented, 
beamed  with  shy  delight  over  the  new 
pleasure  that  had  come  into  their  lives. 

18 


274     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

For  her  it  was  sadly  darkened  by  her 
son's  violent  antagonism  to  their  new 
friend.  They  had  learned  that  they  must 
not  mention  Hugh  Gordon's  name  to  him 
even  in  letters,  and  when  he  last  came  to 
see  them,  on  one  of  his  brief  and  infrequent 
visits,  they  had  trembled  with  anxiety 
during  the  whole  of  his  stay  lest  they 
might  inadvertently  approach  too  near  the 
subject  that  now  loomed  so  large  in  the 
narrow  round  of  their  lives  and  had  brought 
such  freshening  and  broadening  of  their 
interests. 

They  speculated  much  as  to  the  cause 
of  the  animosity  between  the  two  men, 
and  it  was  evident  to  Mrs.  Brand,  in  all 
their  talk,  that  her  daughter's  sympathies 
were  with  Hugh  Gordon.  For  Penelope,  deep 
in  her  heart,  well  concealed  from  her  mother, 
had  long  harbored  a  feeling  toward  her 
brother  that  was  very  near  distrust  and 
contempt.  Mrs.  Brand  had  found  in 
Hugh  Gordon  and  the  affection  he  plainly 
longed  to  give  and  receive,  a  young  man 
fashioned  so  much  more  after  her  spirit 
than  was  her  own  son  that  her  mother- 
heart  yearned  to  enfold  him  also  in  its 


ONE  MORE  RIDE  275 

love.  It  grieved  her  deeply  to  know  how 
intense  was  the  bitterness  between  them. 

"If  they  could  only  both  be  my  boys, 
and  be  good  friends,"  she  said  to  Penelope, 
with  brimming  eyes. 

As  Penelope  opened  her  letter  from 
Hugh  Gordon  she  gazed  with  astonish- 
ment at  the  check  it  contained,  a  check 
for  a  bigger  sum  than  she  and  her  mother 
had  ever  possessed. 

"Dear  Sister  Penelope,"  she  read.  "For 
you  didn't  say  that  I  mustn't  call  you  sister, 
and  so  I  shall,  because  you  know  that  is 
the  way  I  think  of  you.  I  am  very  happy 
just  now  thinking  how  surprised  you  will 
be  when  you  see  this  check.  It  is  some 
money  that  I  borrowed  of  Felix  last  winter 
when  I  wanted  to  start  in  business.  I  am 
now  paying  it  back  to  you  and  your  mother 
instead  of  to  him,  because  I  know  that 
he  is  not  taking  care  of  you  as  he  ought, 
and  also  because  I  know  that  if  I  pay  it 
to  him  he  will  merely  make  some  bad  and 
wasteful  use  of  it.  Enclosed  you  will 
find  a  memorandum  of  the  date,  the  prin- 
cipal, rate,  interest  and  amount.  I  shall 
tell  him  that  I  have  sent  it  to  you. 


276     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"I  have  wanted  very  much  to  see  you 
during  this  last  month,  for  there  are  many 
things  to  talk  over  with  you  at  more  length 
than  is  possible  by  letter.  But  I  knew 
what  a  rage  it  put  Felix  into  when  he  learned 
about  my  being  there  the  last  time  and 
how  unhappy  his  anger  and  violent  talk 
made  both  of  you,  and  especially  your 
mother,  and  I  didn't  want  to  subject  you 
to  such  an  experience  again. 

"But  the  time  is  coming  soon  when  I 
shall  be  able  to  visit  you  as  often  as  you 
will  let  me.  I  am  looking  forward  to  that 
time  with  such  anticipations  of  happiness  as 
I  hardly  dare  tell  you  about.  If  you 
should  decide  against  me,  if  you  should 
not  feel  toward  me  as  I  hope  you  will- 
but,  no,  that  would  not  be  possible.  And 
so  I  shall  go  on  thinking  of  the  happy  times 
we  shall  have  when  I  run  over  often  to 
see  you  and  when  I  take  both  of  you  upon 
little  trips — to  the  seashore,  to  New  York, 
wherever  you  think  you  would  like  to  go. 
For  we  can  make  that  sort  of  pleasure 
possible  for  you,  Penelope,  if  you  want 
to  undertake  it. 

"It  will  all  be  decided  and  everything 


ONE  MORE  RIDE  277 

explained  the  next  time  I  see  you.  But 
to  prepare  the  way  for  all  that  I  shall 
have  to  tell  you,  so  that  you  will  be  ready 
to  listen  to  it  understandingly,  I  am  sending 
you  a  book  to  read  in  the  meantime.  You 
will  find  in  it  one  of  the  wonder  stories 
of  modern  science,  and  in  its  light  that 
quick,  keen  mind  of  yours  will  go  to  the 
heart  of  this  matter  at  once.  You  will 
see  clearly  through  the  essentials  of  the 
mystery  you  have  already  sensed  in  the 
relations  between  Felix  and  me.  But  I 
hope  you  will  not  make  up  your  mind 
about  it  until  I  can  explain  to  you  the 
whole  matter,  from  beginning  to  end.  I 
think  that  will  be  soon,  within  two  or 
three  weeks.  In  the  meantime,  you  will 
not  hear  from  me  again,  for  I  shall  have 
to  go  away  for  a  while." 

The  rest  of  the  letter  was  taken  up  with 
matters  about  which  they  had  been  con- 
ferring for  some  time.  But  Penelope  was 
not  able  to  find  in  them  her  usual  interest, 
so  deep  was  her  absorption  in  Gordon's 
mystifying  allusions  and  promises. 

The  anxious  wonder  they  aroused  in  her, 
however,  was  hardly  greater  than  the 


278     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

trepidation  and  the  sense  of  mystery  which 
descended  upon  Henrietta  Marne  as  she 
studied,  that  same  morning,  the  envelope 
of  Gordon's  letter  to  Felix  Brand.  Why 
should  such  a  letter  always  herald  Brand's 
return  from  these  unaccountable  absences, 
which  grew  ever  longer  and  of  darker 
omen?  What  had  Hugh  Gordon  meant 
by  those  two  or  three  curt,  unconsidered 
sentences  that  seemed  to  hint  at  some 
uncanny  fate  toward  which  Brand  was 
hastening?  And  what  would  be  the  archi- 
tect's demeanor  now?  Would  it  be  such 
that  she  could  not  stay  longer  in  his  employ? 
With  all  the  financial  risk  involved  would 
she  yet  feel  that  she  must  go  forth  and 
look  for  another  position? 

This  last  question  did  not  long  remain 
unanswered  in  her  mind.  Brand's  manner, 
it  was  true,  had  not  lost  entirely  its  habitual 
suavity  and  polish.  Formerly  she  had 
thought  these  to  be  the  genuine  expression 
of  the  innate  refinement  and  kindness  of 
his  nature.  But  now,  as  if  some  inner 
corrosion  were  eating  its  way  outward, 
she  found  that  they  had  ceased  to  be 
anything  more  than  the  thinnest  veneer, 


ONE  MORE  RIDE  279 

through  which  often  broke,  in  words,  or 
manner,  or  look,  peevish  irritation  or  sullen 
anger. 

"It's  as  if  he  were  just  seething  inside," 
said  Henrietta  to  herself  after  he  had  been 
back  several  days,  "  about  something  or 
other  that  makes  him  too  angry  to  con- 
trol himself.  Well,  that's  no  reason  why 
he  should  take  it  out  on  me,  as  he  did 
today.  I  wish  I  could  see  Mr.  Gordon 
again.  Well,  anyway,  I  can't  stand  this 
any  longer.  I'm  sure  he'd  advise  me  not 
to.  Mr.  Brand  is  much  worse  than  he  was 
before  he  went  away,  and  he  looks  as  if 
he  were  the  bad,  base  man  that  Hugh 
Gordon  says  he  is.  I  shall  tell  him  at  once 
that  he'll  have  to  find  another  secretary." 

When  she  told  her  mother  and  sister 
that  she  had  decided  to  look  for  another 
position,  she  had  to  face  a  chorus  of  amazed 
protests  and  she  found  it  difficult  to  con- 
vince them  of  the  soundness  of  her  reasons. 

"He  seems  to  have  lost  all  sense  of 
honor,"  she  told  them.  "In  all  the  busi- 
ness that  he  carries  on  through  me  by 
correspondence  and  sometimes  by  my 
seeing  people,  too,  he  lies  and  cheats  even 


280     FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

when  I  can't  see,  sometimes,  that  he  expects 
to  gain  anything  by  it.  And  I  don't  want 
to  be  a  party  to  that  kind  of  thing  any 
longer,  even  if  I  am  only  a  sort  of  a  machine. 
And  he  is  growing  so  ill-tempered  and  irri- 
table and  rude  that  I  really  can't  endure  it." 

"Oh,  well,  don't  worry  about  it,  Harry," 
said  Isabella  with  her  usual  optimism. 
"You'll  soon  get  another  position.  Please 
make  it  part  of  your  bargain  next  time 
that  your  employer  must  come  over  here 
and  take  me  out  motoring  quite  frequently, 
if  not  oftener." 

"That  reminds  me,  Bella,  that  I  want 
to  ask  you  not  to  go  with  Mr.  Brand 
again.  I'm  sure  he's  not  the  kind  of  man 
we've  always  thought  him." 

"Oh,  nonsense!"  Bella  rejoined,  breezily. 
"Don't  be  alarmed  for  your  handsome 
Felix  Brand.  It  doesn't  do  him  a  bit  of 
harm  and  I  have  a  lot  of  fun.  Don't 
worry  about  me,  Harry.  I'm  not  an  infant. 
And  I  don't  suppose  I'll  be  offered  any 
more  perquisites  of  that  sort,  now  that 
you're  going  to  leave  him.  Poor  little  me!" 

Henrietta  found  her  employer  in  a  par- 
ticularly trying  mood  the  next  morning. 


ONE  MORE  RIDE  281 

He  looked  tired  and  worn,  as  though  he 
had  not  slept,  and  his  mobile  countenance, 
always  so  eloquent  of  his  state  of  mind 
that  every  changing  emotion  shone  through 
it  as  through  a  window  into  his  soul,  told  of 
secret  harassment.  So  also  did  his  tense 
nerves,  which  seemed  wrought  up  almost 
to  the  snapping  point.  They  vented  them- 
selves in  frequent  bursts  of  irritability 
and  snarling  anger.  His  secretary  noticed 
that  he  started  at  every  sudden  sound, 
and  sometimes  also  when  she  had  heard 
nothing,  and  that  then  he  would  look 
round  him  in  an  alarmed,  furtive  way, 
as  if  he  expected  to  see  some  menace  take 
form  out  of  the  air.  To  her  relief  he  did 
not  return  to  the  office  after  luncheon. 
If  she  had  known  that  he  was  speeding 
in  his  automobile  toward  her  home  she 
would  have  taken  less  comfort  in  her 
quiet  afternoon. 

"  Bella,  dear,  do  you  think  you'd  better 
go?"  said  her  mother.  "Harry  seems  so 
anxious  about  it,  and  she  knows  him  better 
than  we  do.  Hadn't  you  better  tell  you 
have  an  engagement,  and  then  take  me  out 
for  a  little  walk?  " 


282     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Oh,  just  this  one  more  time  won't 
make  any  difference,  mother!  I  guess  my 
chatter  is  good  for  him,  for  he  always  seems 
blue  when  we  start  out,  but  by  the  time  we 
come  home  he's  in  as  good  spirits  as  I  am. 
So  it  would  really  be  unkind  not  to  go, 
wouldn't  it,  mother?" 

"Well,  dear,  if  you  think  best.  But  I 
shall  be  anxious  about  you,  so  please  ask 
him  to  bring  you  back  as  soon  as  he  can." 

When  they  returned  in  the  late  afternoon 
Isabella  caught  a  glimpse,  as  the  automo- 
bile stopped  and  she  glanced  up  toward  her 
mother's  room,  of  a  man's  figure  standing 
beside  Mrs.  Maine's  chair,  near  the  window. 
Brand  helped  her  out,  and  then,  casting  a 
keen  glance  at  her,  with  a  little  laugh  he 
took  her  by  the  arm  and  guided  her  up  the 
path  and  across  the  porch  to  the  door. 
Fumbling  with  her  key,  she  scarcely  noticed 
his  departure  and  by  the  time  she  stepped 
inside,  his  machine  was  disappearing  down 
the  street. 

As  she  entered  the  hall  she  saw  a  man 
descending  the  stairs.  Looking  up  uncer- 
tainly, she  staggered  back  a  little  and  leaned 
against  the  wall. 


ONE  MORE  RIDE  283 

" Bella!"  he  cried  joyfully,  and  again, 
"Bella,  darling!"  and  ran  down  the  steps. 

She  gave  a  maudlin  giggle.  " Warren! 
Warren!  Such  s'prise!  S'  glad  t'  see  you!" 
she  muttered  thickly  and,  lurching  toward 
him,  would  have  fallen  had  he  not  caught 
her. 

"Bella!  What  is  the  matter?"  he  ex- 
claimed in  anxious  tones,  and  then,  in  a 
moment,  sudden  disgust  ringing  in  his  voice: 
"Bella,  you're  drunk!  My  God!  And  I 
meant  to  marry  you  next  month !  Motoring 
with  a  man  and  coming  home  drunk !  Good- 
bye, Miss  Marne!  It's  lucky  I  discovered 
my  mistake  in  time!" 

He  snatched  his  hat  from  the  rack  and 
slammed  the  door  behind  him;  and  she, 
as  understanding  of  what  had  happened 
dawned  upon  her,  fell  forward  upon  the 
banister  with  a  long,  agonized  cry. 

Mrs.  Marne,  lying  down  to  rest  in  smiling 
happiness,  with  her  heart  full  of  pleasure 
as  she  thought  of  her  dear  one's  surprise 
and  joy,  heard  that  shriek  and  hurried  in 
alarm  to  the  head  of  the  stairs.  "Bella!" 
she  called.  "What  is  the  matter?  Where 
is  Warren?" 


Isabella,  suddenly  sobered,  lifted  a  white, 
drawn  face:  " Oh,  mother,  he's  gone !  He's 
left  me!  Oh,  mother,  mother!  It's  all 
over!" 

She  turned  with  sudden  resolution  and 
fled  toward  the  dining  room,  so  absorbed 
in  her  own  wild  misery  that  she  heard  and 
saw  nothing  as  her  mother  cried  out, 
swayed  to  and  fro,  and  then  toppled  to  the 
floor. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
"AND  You  COULD  Do  THIS,  FELIX  BRAND  !" 

THE  June  afternoon  was  glowing  with 
sunshine  and  all  the  world  was 
clothed  in  the  sumptuous  beauty  of 
spring  at  its  highest  tide.  Henrietta  Marne 
looked  about  her  as  she  walked  slowly  up 
the  street  toward  her  home  with  a  heart 
more  at  ease  than  she  had  known  for  many 
weeks.  For  she  had  that  day  secured  a 
position  at  a  salary  equal  to  that  she  was 
receiving  from  Felix  Brand  and  was  to 
begin  work  in  it  as  soon  as  the  time  should 
expire  for  which  she  had  already  given  him 
notice. 

"  Difficulties  always  disappear  as  soon  as 
you  tackle  them  in  real  earnest,"  she  was 
saying  to  herself  as  she  smiled  in  pleasure 
of  the  green  world  all  about  her  and  of  the 
satisfaction  that  glowed  in  her  own  breast. 
"  Everything  is  coming  out  all  right.  When 
Hugh  Gordon  comes  back  he'll  be  pleased 
to  find  that  I've  acted  on  his  advice.  I'm 

\  (285) 


286     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

sorry,  awfully  sorry,  about  Mr.  Brand — it 
was  so  delightful  working  for  him  at  first, 
and  for  a  long  time — but  if  he  will  act  like 
this,  what  can  he  expect?" 

Glancing  upward  at  the  windows  of  her 
mother's  room  as  she  entered  her  gate  she 
was  surprised  not  to  see  there  a  loving  face 
on  the  watch  for  her  coming.  She  opened 
the  front  door  and  the  silence  of  the  house 
struck  her  heart  with  a  chill  of  apprehen- 
sion. 

"Mother!  Bella!"  she  called,  a  flutter  of 
alarm  in  her  tones.  "Where  are  you?" 

"Miss  Harry!  Miss  Harry!"  came 
Delia's  voice  in  response.  "Do  come  here, 
quick,  quick!" 

She  rushed  to  the  dining  room  and  saw 
her  sister  stretched  upon  the  lounge  and 
Delia  kneeling  beside  her.  On  the  floor 
was  an  empty  bottle  bearing  a  death's  head 
and  cross-bones  and  "strychnine"  upon 
its  label.  She  herself  had  bought  it  on 
their  physician's  prescription,  as  a  tonic  for 
Mrs.  Marne,  only  a  few  days  before. 

"What  is  it,  Delia?  Did  she  take  that 
poison?"  gasped  Henrietta. 

"Yes'm,  she  took  it,  the  whole  bottle 


"YOU  COULD  DO  THIS"      287 

full.  I  heard  her  scream  in  the  hall  an' 
soon  she  come  flyin'  in  here,  an'  she 
snatched  up  that  bottle  an'  swallowed  all 
them  pills  before  I  knew  what  she  was 
doin'.  Then  she  tumbled  down  an'  I 
grabbed  her  an'  stuck  me  finger  down  her 
throat.  She  fought  me  and  tried  to  push 
me  away,  but  I  wouldn't  an'  I  kep'  on 
stickin'  me  finger  way  down  an'  after  a 
while  she  spewed  it  all  up.  Oh,  the  dear 
an'  lovely  darlin',  an'  her  so  merry  an' 
happy  all  the  time!  She  won't  die  now, 
will  she,  Miss  Harry?" 

Henrietta  had  hastily  mixed  an  emetic 
and  together  they  forced  it  down  her  throat. 

"I  hope  she  won't,  Delia — I  hope  you've 
saved  her.  But  we  must  have  a  doctor 
now,  at  once.  Run,  Delia,  and  send  the 
first  person  you  can  find  as  fast  as  he  can 
go  for  a  doctor  to  come  immediately — say 
it's  a  case  of  life  and  death." 

Delia  rushed  away  and  Henrietta,  though 
her  heart  was  full  of  anxiety  about  her 
mother,  hovered  over  Isabella,  who  lay 
with  closed  eyes  and  ghastly  face,  moaning 
but  seemingly  unconscious. 

Presently,  fearful  of  what  the  silence  of 


288      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

the  house  might  mean  with  regard  to  its 
other  occupant,  she  left  her  sister  and 
hurried  upstairs.  There  she  found  Mrs. 
Marne  unconscious  on  the  floor.  But  she 
knew  what  should  be  done  and  met  the 
crisis  with  quick  and  capable  action.  And 
in  a  few  moments  more  she  heard  in  the 
hall  below  the  voice  of  their  own  physician, 
whom  the  maid  had  luckily  encountered 
nearby  upon  the  street. 

But  scarcely  had  she  supported  Mrs. 
Marne  to  her  bed  when  a  shriek  in  Delia's 
voice,  followed  by  the  cry  of  "Doctor! 
Miss  Harry!  Come  quick!"  sent  her  on 
flying  feet  down  the  stairs  again.  Isabella, 
whom  she  had  thought  unconscious,  had 
risen  and  tottered  to  the  kitchen.  There 
the  maid,  rushing  on  from  the  empty 
dining-room,  had  found  her  beside  the  sink 
with  a  bottle  of  carbolic  acid  up-raised, 
ready  to  pour  down  her  throat.  Delia 
had  struck  it  from  her  hand  barely  in  time 
to  save  her  from  all  but  a  chance  burn  upon 
her  cheek. 

"She  must  have  had  some  sudden  and 
very  serious  shock,"  said  the  physician 
later,  as  he  and  Henrietta  stood  beside  the 


'YOU  COULD  DO  THIS"      289 

bed  where  Isabella  lay,  at  last  sleeping 
quietly  but  moaning  in  her  slumber.  "Her 
second  attempt  to  kill  herself  shows  how 
profound  it  must  have  been.  But  she 
will  come  through  all  right  now,  I  think, 
though  her  recovery  will  perhaps  be  slow. 
What  she  will  need  more  than  anything  else 
will  be  to  talk,  and  as  soon  as  it  is  prudent 
you  must  persuade  her  to  confide  in  you 
and  tell  you  the  whole  story  of  whatever 
it  was  that  led  her  to  take  this  violent 
measure.  Her  nature  is  one  that  needs 
sympathy  and  support,  now  far  more  than 
ever,  and  the  sooner  she  can  be  led  to  pour 
out  all  her  trouble  the  sooner  she  will  be 
able  to  get  her  grip  on  life  again.  But  of 
course  you'll  keep  all  the  knowledge  of  it 
that  you  can  away  from  your  mother. 
You'll  have  to  use  your  own  discretion 
about  that.  She's  had  a  pretty  severe 
shock,  too,  and,  though  she  was  getting  on 
so  well,  it's  likely  to  set  her  back  a  good 
deal." 

For  days  Isabella  lay  in  her  bed,  like  a 
broken,  withered  flower,  weeping  much  and 
asking  between  her  sobs  why  they  had  not 
let  her  die.  But  at  last  her  sister's  love  and 

19 


290     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

tender,  persistent  effort  broke  through  the 
wrappings  of  grief  and  shame  that  had 
kept  her  bound  in  silence  and  in  Henrietta's 
arms  she  sobbed  out  the  pitiful  tale  that 
had  come  to  so  tragic  an  ending. 

"Oh,  Harry,"  she  said,  "I  can't  under- 
stand why  this  awful  thing  should  have 
happened  when  I  meant  no  harm  at  all. 
I  can't  see  yet  that  there  was  anything 
wrong  in  my  going  out  with  Mr.  Brand 
now  and  then.  It  wasn't  many  times, 
you  know,  and  always  he  had  some  business 
errand  and  just  stopped  for  me  to  give  me 
a  little  pleasure  and  to  have  some  company 
himself.  I  suppose  he  liked  to  have  me  go 
with  him  because  I  was  always  jolly  and 
kept  him  in  good  spirits.  For  I  did  notice, 
Harry,  that  when  he  came  he  always  seemed 
rather  blue  and  anxious,  and  then,  after  we 
had  been  out  for  a  while  and  I  had  laughed 
and  chattered  a  lot,  he  would  be  more 
cheerful  and  by  the  time  we  would  get 
back  he  would  seem  quite  himself  again. 

"Since  I  have  been  lying  here  and  think- 
ing and  thinking,  Harry,  dear,"  she  stopped 
and  hid  her  face  and  a  shiver  of  shame 
passed  over  her  body.  Henrietta's  arms 


'YOU  COULD  DO  THIS"     291 

tightened  about  her  and  she  whispered 
soothing,  loving  words.  "I've  been  think- 
ing, dear,"  Isabella  went  on  brokenly, 
"that  perhaps  that  was  why  he  always 
stopped  somewhere  and  ordered  a  bottle  of 
champagne.  Because  it  did  put  me  hi  such 
gay  spirits  and,  I  suppose,  made  me  more 
lively  and  just  that  much  better  company. 
And  that,  I  guess,  was  what  he  wanted.  I 
never  drank  but  little,  never  more  than  a 
glass  or  two,  and  I  couldn't  see  any  harm 
in  it,  though  you  did  think  I  oughtn't. 
Sometimes  I  held  back  and  asked  him  if 
he  thought  I'd  better,  and  he  always 
laughed  at  me  and  urged  me  on  and  made 
it  seem  silly  in  me  to  have  scruples. 

"But  that  last  day—  "  again  she  stopped 
and  broke  into  a  passion  of  sobbing  that 
took  all  of  Henrietta's  loving  sympathy  and 
tenderness  to  soothe.  "You  asked  me  not 
to  go  again,"  she  went  on  after  a  while  in 
trembling  tones,  "and  when  he  came  mother, 
too,  thought  I'd  better  not.  Oh,  Harry, 
how  I  wish  I  had  heeded  you  and  refused  to 
go!  I  could  have  made  some  excuse,  and 
then —  Oh,  Harry,  Harry,  I  don't  want  to 
live  any  longer!" 


292      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"There,  there,  darling!"  soothed  her 
sister.  "Try  to  control  yourself  and  tell 
me  all  that  happened.  I'm  sure  it  couldn't 
have  been  anything  so  very  bad.  Tell  me 
all  about  it,  dear,  and  then  you'll  feel 
better." 

"Mr.  Brand  seemed  so  different  from 
what  he  used  to  be,"  she  presently  went 
on,  "and  I  began  to  understand  what  you 
told  us  about  the  change  in  him.  I  was 
just  a  little  afraid  after  we  started,  he 
seemed  to  be  in  such  an  ugly  temper  and, 
oh,  Harry,  what  a  bad  man  he  looks  now! 
I  begged  him  to  bring  me  home  again  after 
a  little  while,  but  he  wouldn't  and  said  his 
business  was  too  important  to  be  put  aside 
for  my  whims. 

"I  was  a  little  frightened  and  a  good 
deal  anxious  and  so  of  course  I  wasn't  as 
gay  as  usual,  and  that  seemed  to  make  him 
angry.  Then  he  said  we'd  stop  and  have 
some  wine  and  I  thought  perhaps  it  would 
be  best  to  humor  him  and  then  maybe  I 
could  persuade  him  to  bring  me  home.  I 
meant  not  to  drink  more  than  a  glass,  but 
he  made  me — perhaps  he  thought  it  would 
make  me  more  lively,  Anyway,  he  was  so 


"YOU   COULD   DO   THIS"      293 

rough  in  his  manner  and  looks  and  there 
was  such  an  angry  gleam  in  his  eyes  that  I 
was  too  frightened  not  to  do  what  he  told 
me  to.  And  by  the  time  we  got  home  I  was 
—oh,  Harry,  I  can't  say  it — and  Warren 
met  me  as  I  came  in  and  saw — and  he  said 
—an  awful  thing — and  rushed  away — and 
it's  all  over,  Harry — I  can  never  see  him 
again — it's  all  over." 

"  Don't  think  that,  yet,  Bella,  dear.  I'll 
write  to  him  and  explain  it  all,  and  he'll 
know  it  wasn't  your  fault.  He  won't 
blame  you.  He's  too  kind-hearted  and 
good  not  to  see  that  it  was  hasty  of  him  to 
act  as  he  did." 

"That  won't  matter,  Harry.  I'd  like 
him  to  know  that  I'm  not  the  kind  of 
woman  he  seemed  to  think.  But  I  could 
never,  never  look  him  in  the  face  again 
after — that — after  what  he  saw  and  said. 
I'd  always  think  he  was  thinking  of  it.  It's 
all  over,  Harry,  it's  all  over." 

When  at  last  Henrietta  had  soothed  her 
sister  to  sleep  she  stood  beside  the  bed 
looking  down  at  Isabella's  grief-stricken 
face  and  listening  to  the  sobs  that  now  and 
then  convulsed  her  throat. 


294     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"And  you  could  do  this,  Felix  Brand!" 
she  said  bitterly.  "You,  that  we  thought 
so  noble  and  good!  Hugh  Gordon  is  right 
— you  are  a  wicked  man,  and  if  you  are  the 
one  he  meant  you  don't  deserve  to  live!" 


CHAPTER  XX 
"SAVE  ME,  DK.  ANNISTER!" 

MILDRED  ANNISTER,  passing  the 
open  door  of  her  father's  waiting 
room,  sent  into  it  a  casual  glance, 
came  to  a  sudden  stop,  and  then,  with  a 
brightening  face,  went  quickly  in,  saying 
softly,  " Felix!"  Sweeping  the  room  with 
her  eyes  she  saw  that  he  was  its  only 
occupant  and  ran  toward  him,  holding  out 
her  hands  and  asking,  apprehensively : 

"Felix!  You're  waiting  to  see  father! 
Are  you  ill?" 

She  put  her  hands  upon  his  shoulders 
and  studied  his  face  with  anxious  scrutiny 
for  an  instant,  until,  yielding  to  the  pressure 
of  his  arms,  she  sank  upon  his  breast  with 
a  murmur  of  happy  laughter. 

"No,  dearest,  I'm  not  ill — you  can  see 
how  perfectly  well  I  look.  It's  just  a  little 
nerve  tire,  I  guess,  and  I  want  to  ask  Dr. 
Annister  to  prescribe  a  tonic  for  me.  It's 
nothing  of  any  consequence." 

(295) 


296      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

She  drew  back  and  studied  his  face  again. 
Even  her  fascinated  eyes  began  to  see  in  it 
something  different  from  the  look  of  the 
man  who  had  won  her  love  so  completely 
a  year  before.  She  was  conscious  of  a 
little  shiver,  that  meant,  she  knew  not 
what,  but  kept  her  from  yielding  when  he 
would  press  her  again  into  his  arms. 

"I'm  afraid — Felix,  dear — I  know  you 
must  be  working  too  hard.  That's  what's 
the  matter  and  that's  what  makes  you 
look — a  little — strange.  You  are  tired. 
You  are  doing  such  lots  of  work.  And 
you  mustn't  break  down — now!"  With 
another  happy,  loving  little  laugh  she  gave 
up  and  nestled  against  his  shoulder,  while 
he  kissed  her  cheek  and  brow  and  lips. 

"Felix!"  she  exclaimed,  "I'm  standing 
out  bravely  against  that  trip  to  Europe 
father  is  so  determined  I  shall  take  with 
mother  this  summer.  I  won't  go  and  leave 
you.  He  hasn't  said  so  much  about  it 
lately,  because  he's  not  well  and  mother  is 
anxious  about  him.  I've  almost  persuaded 
her  that  she  ought  not  to  leave  him." 

She  paused  a  moment,  her  face  rosy  with 
his  caresses.  Her  eyes  sought  his  and  her 


"SAVE  ME"  297 

voice  sank  to  a  whisper.  "Felix,  dear 
heart,  if  we  could  only  go  there  alone 
together!  Can't  we  tell  them  and  then 
just  go  away  by  ourselves?" 

"I  don't  think  we'd  better  tell  them  yet. 
Your  father  seems  to  have  become  opposed 
to  us,  for  some  reason,  and  I'm  trying  to 
win  him  over.  We  must  wait  a  little." 

"It's  only  because  he  can't  bear  to  think 
of  my  marrying  any  one.  He  doesn't 
want  to  give  me  up 

"I  don't  blame  him  for  that!" 

"But  he'll  have  to  some  time,  and — oh, 
Felix!  I  wish  we  could  tell  him,  and  mother, 
soon!  It  makes  me  feel  so  underhanded, 
and  it  mars  my  happiness,  just  a  little, 
darling.  Don't  you  think  it  would  be 
better  to  face  the  music  and  have  it  over 
with?" 

The  sound  of  Dr.  Annister's  voice  dis- 
missing a  patient  came  to  their  ears  and 
she  sprang  out  of  his  embrace.  "No,  no! 
don't  whisper  a  word  of  it,"  he  hastily 
adjured  her.  "We  must  wait  a  little 
while  longer.  Remember  what  I  say." 
There  was  a  touch  of  impatience,  almost  of 
roughness,  in  his  tone  as  he  spoke  the  last 


298      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

words  that  made  her  turn  wondering  eyes 
upon  him  for  an  instant.  But  her  father 
was  opening  the  door  into  his  consulting 
room  and  now  came  forward  with  an  out- 
stretched hand.  She  put  her  arm  through 
her  lover's  and  walked  with  him  into  the 
office. 

"This  naughty  boy  has  been  working  too 
hard,  father,"  she  said  gaily,  "and  he  has 
that  tired  feeling.  I  think  you'd  better 
prescribe  a  six  months'  rest  and  a  trip 
around  the  world!" 

She  was  smiling  persuasively  at  her 
father  and  did  not  see  the  look  of  irritation 
that  leaped  into  Brand's  eyes  as  he  turned 
them  suddenly  upon  her.  Then  he  laugh- 
ingly shook  his  head,  saying: 

"It  would  be  a  bigger  dose  than  I  could 
swallow,  I'm  afraid.  I  have  too  many  con- 
tracts on  my  hands  now  to  be  able  to  take 
any  such  French  leave  as  that." 

"Anyway,  father,"  she  insisted  as  she 
moved  toward  the  door  and,  from  behind 
the  doctor's  back,  threw  her  lover  a  kiss, 
"you  must  tell  him  not  to  overwork  him- 
self, as  he's  been  doing  lately." 

"Well,  Felix,  what  is  it?     What's  the 


"SAVE  ME"  299 

trouble?"  said  the  little  physician  kindly, 
as  he  sank  back  into  the  depths  of  his 
capacious  arm-chair. 

But  the  architect  was  ill  at  ease.  He 
sprang  up  from  the  chair  where  he  had 
just  seated  himself  and  began  walking  back 
and  forth  in  the  narrow  space.  His  whole 
soul  was  in  rebellion  against  the  confession 
he  had  come  there  to  make. 

"Perhaps  you  will  remember,  Dr.  Annis- 
ter,"  he  began,  broke  off,  stopped  to  wipe 
his  brow,  then  stumbled  on:  "It  was  here 
in  your  office — you  will  remember,  when  I 
recall  it  to  you — some  time  ago,  you  told 
me — you  asked  me  about — certain  things, 
and  urged  me  to  come  to  you — if  at  any 
time  I  felt  I  needed  your  help." 

"Yes,  yes,  I  remember,"  the  doctor 
rejoined  in  encouraging  tones.  He  was 
looking  at  Brand  with  a  searching  gaze 
and  saying  to  himself:  "Faugh!  How 
repulsive  his  face  has  grown!  He's  going 
to  tell  me  the  whole  truth  this  time!" 

Brand  was  silent  again  and  the  doctor 
went  on,  a  little  more  briskly:  "Well,  let's 
begin  and  have  it  over  with.  You  must 
bear  in  mind  that  the  secrets  of  the  physi- 


300      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

cian's  office  are  as  sacred  as  those  of   the 
confessional." 

"I  know  it,  Dr.  Annister.  But  it's  a 
strange  story  I  have  to  tell  you,  and  I 
don't  know  whether  or  not  you  can  help 
me.  I  thought  I  could  fight  it  out  myself 
and  win,  but  I  can't.  And  if  you  can't 
help  me  God  knows  what  will  become  of 


me." 


His  voice  sank  despairingly  and  he 
dropped  into  the  chair  again,  his  face  in 
his  hands. 

"I'll  do  my  best,  Felix,  whatever  it  is," 
the  other  encouraged  again.  "Don't  hes- 
itate to  confide  in  me.  .I've  listened  to 
many,  many  strange  stories  in  this  room, 
and  only  the  walls  are  any  the  wiser." 

"I  suppose  I'm  ill."  Brand  started  up 
again  and  moved  about  with  uneasy  steps. 
"I  believe  you  physicians  have  decided  it's 
an  illness — and  I  think  you've  treated  some 
cases—  '  he  halted  and  seemed  to  gather 
up  resolution  for  his  next  words — "disso- 
ciated, or  dual,  personality — that's  what 
you  call  it,  isn't  it?" 

Dr.  Annister  sat  bolt  upright  and  for  an 
instant  could  not  put  under  professional 


"SAVE  ME"  301 

control  the  surprise  that  crossed  his  face. 
But  Brand,  half  turned  away,  was  gazing 
at  the  floor  as  if  he  found  it  difficult  to  meet 
his  companion's  eyes.  He  was  conscious 
of  an  edge  of  impersonal  interest  in  the 
physician's  voice: 

"Yes,  I've  done  a  little  in  that  line — a 
few  cases — but  nothing  to  equal  in  impor- 
tance the  work  of  one  or  two  others.  But 
I've  been  pretty  successful.  Doubtless  I 
can  help  you.  Go  on.  Tell  me  about  it." 

"It's  that  damned  Hugh  Gordon!"  the 
architect  broke  out,  turning  savagely  to- 
ward the  doctor,  his  face  distorted  with 
anger  and  his  eyes  blazing.  "He's  righting 
me  for  my  body!  He  said  he'd  push  me 
off  the  edge,  and  he's  doing  it.  Save  me, 
Dr.  Annister!  Save  me  from  him!  Send 
him  back  to  where  he  came  from!"  In 
sudden  realization  of  the  fate  that  threat- 
ened him  Brand  sank  trembling  into  his 
chair. 

"I'll  try,  Felix,  I'U  do  my  best,  and 
I'm  sure  I  can  help  you.  But  you  must 
tell  me  everything  about  it.  How  long 
has  this  condition  been  going  on?  When 
did  it  begin?" 


302      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Oh,  I  hardly  know  how  to  answer 
that,  it  came  about  so  gradually.  Last 
fall,  in  October,  was  the  first  time  he- 
he — came  out.  But  long  before  that  he 
was  alive,  inside  of  me,  and  I  knew  about 
him  sometimes  in  my  dreams.  For  years, 
ever  since  I  was  a  boy,  I  have  had  occa- 
sionally a  curious  experience  in  a  dream. 
I  would  be  in  the  dream  always,  but  not 
as  myself.  I  would  know,  in  the  dream 
and  afterwards,  that  it  was  I  who  was 
feeling,  thinking,  acting,  talking,  but  at 
the  same  time  it  would  seem  to  be  an 
entirely  different  personality.  Of  course 
there  is  always  more  or  less  of  that  feeling 
in  a  dream,  but  in  this  case  the  divergence 
was  so  sharp  and  the  consciousness  of  a 
different  individuality  was  so  distinct  that 
it  was  just  as  if  my  mind,  or  soul,  or  what- 
ever it  is  that  holds  the  essence  of  myself, 
had  left  me  and  taken  possession  of  some 
other  individual.  Can  you  tell  me  what 
that  meant,  Dr.  Annister?  For  it  was  the 
beginning  of  the  whole  business,  and  I've 
thought,  sometimes,  that  I  might  have 
saved  myself  all — this.  Do  you  think  I 
could?"  * 


"SAVE  ME"  303 

Dr.  Annister  was  gazing  at  his  patient 
with  inscrutable  eyes,  sitting  upright,  his 
fingers  tapping.  "I  can't  say  now,  Felix. 
I  don't  know  enough  yet.  But  this  expe- 
rience was  probably  due  to  your  sub-con- 
scious self.  For  we  are  pretty  well  assured 
that  there  is  an  existence,  perhaps  more 
than  one,  in  every  human  being  subordi- 
nate to  that  of  which  he  is  conscious,  which 
is  himself.  Submerged  beneath  the  full 
stream  of  his  conscious  existence,  with  all 
its  phases  of  physical  and  psychical  activity, 
this  other  existence  goes  on.  In  most 
people  it  is  either  so  deeply  submerged  or 
so  closely  bound  up  in  their  conscious 
existence  that  they  never  know  anything 
about  it.  Sometimes  they  catch  dim 
glimpses  of  it,  and  once  in  awhile,  in  one 
person  out  of  many  millions,  some  nervous 
shock  will  break  the  bonds  between  the 
two  and  the  submerged  consciousness  will 
rise  to  the  surface  and  take  possession. 
That  is  probably  what  happened  in  your 
dreams,  with,  doubtless,  some  shock  at 
the  beginning  to  make  it  possible.  Did 
these  dreams  occur  frequently?" 

"I  don't  think  they  did  at  first.     But 


304     FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

I  was  too  young  and  thoughtless  to  take 
any  account  of  them.  I  remember  that 
they  occurred  once  in  a  while  in  my  teens. 
Afterwards  they  became  more  frequent 
and  the  impression  they  made  upon  me 
was  much  stronger.  Then  that  impression 
began  to  remain  with  me  after  I  was  awake, 
more  as  a  memory  at  first,  an  unusually 
vivid  remembrance  of  a  dream  state.  Then 
it  grew  so  strong  that  for  an  hour  or  two 
after  waking  it  would  dominate  me  and 
I  could  feel  myself  almost  swaying  back 
into  that  other  person  I  had  been  while 
I  was  asleep  and  dreaming.  I  thought 
it  would  be  a  curious  and  interesting  expe- 
rience if  I  could  slip  over  into  this  other 
person  sometimes  while  I  was  awake. 
You  know  you  get  rather  tired  sometimes 
of  your  own  individuality." 

He  stopped  and  smiled,  then  went  on: 
"It  has  never  been  my  habit  to  pass  by 
any  interesting  or  pleasurable  experience 
that  came  my  way." 

The  smile  became  almost  a  leer  and  then 
stiffened  into  a  sneering  defiance  as  his 
gaze  met  the  clear  gray  eyes  of  the  physi- 
cian, impersonal,  professional,  unrespond- 


"SAVE   ME"  305 

ing.  The  doctor's  chin  rested  upon  his 
locked  fingers  and  his  eyes  were  fastened 
upon  the  other's  face.  Brand  did  not 
know  how  much  of  his  soul  that  searching 
gaze  was  gradually  forcing  him  to  reveal. 

"I  have  always  thought,"  he  went  on, 
as  if  moved  by  an  impulse  of  self-defense, 
the  half-leering,  half-sneering  smile  still 
on  his  face,  "that  a  man  has  the  right  to 
sample  all  the  pleasures  that  come  within 
his  reach.  It's  the  only  way  by  which 
he  can  come  into  full  knowledge  of  himself, 
and  so  reach  his  highest  development. 
And  that,  I  take  it,  is  one  of  the  things 
a  man  lives  for.  Therefore  he  owes  it  to 
himself  to  let  nothing  pass  by  him  untried." 

Brand  ceased  speaking  and  waited  as 
if  he  expected  some  response.  "  Don't 
you  agree  with  me?"  he  said,  after  a  moment 
of  silence,  in  his  old,  suave  and  deferent 
manner. 

"Eh?  Agree  with  you?  Oh,  my  opinion 
on  that  matter  is  of  no  consequence  just 
now.  You  were  speaking  about  this  other 
individuality  beginning  to  dominate  you 
after  you  awoke.  What  happened  then?" 

The  architect  straightened  up  and  sent 

20 


306     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

an  irritated  glance  toward  his  companion. 
But  that  clear  gaze  had  established  too 
firm  a  hold  over  his  will  to  be  swayed  by 
sudden  temper.  He  fidgeted  in  his  chair, 
then  took  up  his  story  again : 

"Yes,  I  wondered  what  it  would  be  like 
really  to  be  somebody  else  now  and  then. 
The  dream  was  no  more  real  to  me  than 
any  dream  ever  is,  and  if  I  could  let  myself 
be  this  other  individuality  for  a  little  while 
awake  it  seemed  to  me  that  it  would  be  a 
wonderful  experience — something  that  no- 
body else  had  ever  had.  One  morning 
last  fall  I  woke  up  with  the  remembrance 
of  such  a  dream  particularly  vivid  and  the 
impression  of  this  other  personality  stronger 
than  it  had  ever  been.  It  seemed  to  me 
that  if  I  so  much  as  shut  my  eyes  I'd 
drift  off  into  this  other  being.  While  I 
was  dressing  I  thought  I'd  just  try  it 
and  see  what  would  happen.  I  was  getting 
ready  to  shave  and  as  I  made  up  my  mind, 
or,  rather,  took  down  my  determination 
against  it,  I  happened  to  look  at  the  bright 
blade  of  my  razor.  It  seemed  as  if  my  eyes 
fairly  stuck  fast  to  it  for  a  moment  and — 
the  thing  was  done." 


"SAVE  ME"  307 

The  doctor  nodded.  "Yes.  Self-hypno- 
sis. Go  on.  The  case  is  most  interesting." 

"Well,  for  about  an  hour  I  was — the 
Lord  knows  where  or  what.  When  I  came 
to  myself  again  I  had  no  recollection  of 
what  had  taken  place.  Except  for  the 
clock  I  wouldn't  have  known  that  any 
time  at  all  had  passed.  I  found  that  I 
had  shaved  myself,  and  had  left  my  mus- 
tache, but  what  else  I  had  done  I  don't 
know.  I  tried  it  again  a  little  later,  hoping 
I  might,  if  I  knew  what  was  coming,  be 
aware  of  what  happened.  But  I  wasn't. 
I  completely  lost  my  own  consciousness  for 
that  time. 

"Then  this — this  creature  was  able,  after 
that,  to  come  out  of  his  own  will,  without 
my  giving  permission.  He  would  come 
while  I  was  asleep,  at  first  only  for  a  few 
hours,  and  he  would  usually  leave  a  letter 
for  me  in  the  room  telling  me  what  he  had 
done  and  what  he  wanted  me  to  do.  He 
called  himself  'Hugh  Gordon'  and  always 
signed  his  letters  that  way. 

"At  first  I  thought  this  was  rather 
amusing.  But  each  time  that  he  came 
his  power  grew  stronger,  and  so  did  his 


308     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

desire  for  an  independent  existence.  Be- 
fore long  he  was  taking  possession  of  my 
body  for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time,  going 
out  and  following  his  own  affairs.  He 
bought  a  suit  of  gray  clothes — he  seemed 
to  want  everything  different  from  me— 
and  when  at  last  he  was  able  to  keep  him- 
self going  for  a  week  or  two  he  had  my 
hair  cut  short  and  let  a  mustache  grow, 
and  began  sending  his  damned  insolent 
letters  through  the  mail  to  my  office. 

"Now  you  know,  Dr.  Annister,  why 
I  couldn't  explain  my  absences  any  better. 
Each  time  that  he  pushes  me  down  and  gets 
possession  of  my  body  he  keeps  it  longer. 
Now  he's  threatening  me  with  annihilation. 
He  says  that  the  next  time  he  comes  he's 
going  to  stay.  And  I'm  at  the  end  of  my 
strength,  doctor.  I've  fought  him  back, 
and  he's  fought  to  get  out,  for  hours,  and 
days.  It's  worst  at  night,  because,  so  far, 
the  change  has  always  taken  place  when 
I  was  asleep.  For  the  last  two  nights  I 
have  not  slept — I've  been  afraid  to  close 
my  eyes.  I've  tramped  up  and  down  my 
apartment  and  I've  drank  brandy  and 
I've  gone  around  town  and  raised  hell. 


"SAVE  ME"  309 

But  I  can't  fight  him  off  much  longer 
and  I've  got  to  have  some  sleep.  Unless 
you  can  help  me  I've  come  to  the  end." 

Dr.  Annister  was  looking  at  him  gravely, 
sympathetically,  the  deepest  interest  mani- 
fest in  his  countenance.  "I  hope  I  can 
help  you,  Felix.  I  hope  I  can.  We'll  try. 
I  wish  you  had  come  to  me  with  this 
long  ago.  It  might  have  been  easier. 
But  I  need  to  know  still  more  about  it. 
The  case  is  very  peculiar,  very  interesting, 
and  it  has  features  that  differentiate  it  from 
any  other  that  has  been  studied  by  any 
physician.  These  dreams  that  the  whole 
thing  seems  to  have  grown  out  of — try 
to  remember,  Felix,  were  they  preceded 
by  any  severe  nervous  shock,  an  illness, 
anything  that  might  have  aided  in  the 
breaking  up  of  your  personality?" 

Brand  hesitated  and  a  faint  color  crept 
into  his  face.  He  knew  when  they  began 
and  it  was  a  thing  he  did  not  like  to  think 
of,  even  now,  after  so  many  years  and  the 
change  which  these  later  months  had  made 
in  his  character.  But  the  doctor's  gaze 
was  upon  him  and  he  felt  compulsion  in  it. 

"I  think,"  he  said  slowly,  "it  must  have 


310     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

been  perhaps  twenty  years  or  more  ago. 
I  had  just  entered  my  teens.  My  sister 
and  I  were  in  a  tree  in  our  yard  and  she 
fell  out  and  was  badly  hurt.  She — she  has 
never  recovered.  It  was  a  good  deal  of 
a  shock  to  me.  I  began  to  notice  the 
dreams  soon  afterward.  But  they  weren't 
very  frequent." 

"Just  so.  It  might  have  been  that." 
The  doctor  was  tapping  his  finger-tips 
together  thoughtfully.  There  was  some- 
thing he  wanted  to  know,  which  he  must 
find  out.  But  he  did  not  believe  that 
the  man  before  him  would  answer  truth- 
fully the  questions  he  needed  to  ask.  So 
he  decided  to  experiment  in  another  direc- 
tion. "This — this  other  you/'  he  went 
on,  "this  Hugh  Gordon,  came  to  see  me 
once  and 

"Don't  caU  him  my  other  self!"  Felix 
cried  out  angrily,  jumping  to  his  feet  and 
scowling.  "He  is  a  thief,  a  murderer! 
He  has  stolen  my  good  name,  my  money, 
my  body,  he  is  trying  to  kill  me!  I  know 
he  came  here  and  tried  to  poison  your 
feeling  against  me — and  I  think  he  must 
have  succeeded,  too.  He  has  tried  to  set 


"SAVE  ME"  311 

my  own  mother  and  sister  against  me  in 
that  same  way.  He  goes  snooping  out  to 
their  home  and  makes  them  believe  all 
sorts  of  tales  about  me.  He's  even  been 
whispering  his  lies  into  the  ear  of  my 
secretary,  until  she's  going  to  leave  me." 

In  his  rage,  which  grew  with  each  fresh 
accusation  that  he  brought  against  his 
enemy,  Brand  was  rushing  about  with 
uneven  steps  and  now  and  then  smiting 
a  table  or  a  chair  with  his  fist.  "He  is 
determined  to  pull  me  down  and  cover 
me  with  disgrace  and  then  annihilate  me 
for  his  own  benefit.  Damn  him,  I  won't 
have  him  spoken  of  as  my  other  self!" 

"Try  to  be  calm,  Felix,"  urged  the 
doctor  quietly.  "You  only  make  your 
task  the  harder  every  time  you  give  up 
to  such  outbursts  of  rage."  He  was  looking 
at  the  other's  trembling  hands  and  work- 
ing face  and  thinking  that  here  was  at 
least  a  beginning  of  what  he  wished  to 
know. 

"Has  this  abnormal  condition  affected 
you  in  the  exercise  of  your  special  gift?" 
he  asked.  Brand's  face  brightened  and 
his  manner  quieted  at  once, 


312      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Ah!  That's  something  he's  not  been 
able  to  filch  from  me,  the  damned  thief!" 
he  exclaimed  exultantly  as  he  seated  him- 
self again.  "I've  kept  all  the  talent  I 
ever  had  in  that  line,  and  it  has  developed 
and  increased  wonderfully — I  don't  mean 
to  boast,  Dr.  Annister,  but  I  know  what 
I'm  talking  about — since  this  has  been 
going  on.  If  you  saw  the  pictures  that 
were  published  and  the  things  all  the 
critics  said  of  me  a  few  weeks  ago  you 
would  know  that  is  true.  I'm  astonished 
myself  lately  at  the  ease,  the  rapidity 
and  the  success  with  which  I  work.  But 
it's  all  he  has  not  stolen,"  Brand  continued 
more  gloomily.  "He  has  taken  all  my 
business  sense.  I  used  to  have  a  good 
deal  of  it.  I  could  make  money  and  I 
would  soon  have  been  a  rich  man.  Now 
I'm  getting  poorer  every  day,  and  he's 
getting  rich." 

"Yes,  I  see."  The  physician  was  nod- 
ding and  softly  beating  his  fingers  together. 
"I  get  an  idea  of  how  the  cleavage  has 
been.  Your  nature  was  broken  into  two 
parts — as  clean  and  sharp  and  complete 
a  break  as  in  any  case  I  know  of.  Our 


"SAVE  ME"  313 

task  now  is  to  reunite  them  and  make  a 
whole  man  again  out  of  the  halves  into 
which  you  have  separated." 

Brand  leaned  forward  eagerly.  "Then 
you'll  help  me?"  he  demanded.  "You 
won't  go  over  to  his  side?  The  damned 
hypocrite!  He  says  he  is  more  entitled 
to  life  than  I  am,  because  he's  a  better 
man,  because  he  wants  to  do  good.  Why, 
Doctor,  in  the  last  letter  he  sent  me— 
Brand's  anger  was  rising  again — "he  or- 
dered me  to  make  my  will,  and  to  leave  a 
letter  for  some  one  that  would  explain 
my  disappearance  so  that  it  would  be 
known  that  I  was  gone  for  good,  that  I 
was  never  coming  back!"  The  physician 
held  his  patient  with  a  calm  gaze  and  made 
a  sign  that  he  was  to  control  himself. 
And  in  a  moment  Felix  sank  back  into 
his  seat,  trembling  with  the  reaction  from 
his  burst  of  temper,  and  imploring  the 
other  for  the  gift  of  a  longer  lease  of  life. 

"You'll  send  him  back  to  where  he  came 
from,  won't  you,  Dr.  Annister?  You 
won't  let  him  have  his  will  over  me?" 

"We  can  succeed,"  the  doctor  assured 
him  in  confident  tones,  "if  you  will  do 


314     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

your  part.  You  must  control  yourself  at 
all  times.  Try  to  strengthen  your  en- 
feebled will  power.  Live  quietly,  sanely, 
and  a  clean,  moral  life.  I  don't  believe 
you've  been  doing  that,  Felix." 

"Oh,  I've  had  to  keep  some  excitement 
going.  I've  motored  like  the  devil  all 
around  New  York,  and  when  I  could  have 
pleasant  company  with  me  that  helped 
to  hold  that  damned  creature  down  as 
much  as  anything.  Some  people  were 
better  than  others.  Miss  Marne's  sister, 
a  jolly  girl,  especially  if  I  fed  her  with 
champagne  while  we  were  out,  was  very 
useful  and  she  saved  me  several  times. 
But  the  last  time  it  was  a  failure.  She 
seemed  to  be  afraid  of  me  and  though 
I  made  her  drink  wine  till  she  was  drunk, 
it  was  no  good.  I  came  back  no  better 
off  than  I  was  before." 

Dr.  Annister  made  a  sudden  movement 
and  looked  at  his  watch.  He  was  con- 
scious of  an  irruption  of  unprofessional 
loathing  into  his  feeling  for  his  patient. 
He  was  wondering  how  much  this  callous 
disregard  of  everything  but  his  own  interest 
was  due  to  his  abnormal  condition  and 


"SAVE  ME"  315 

how  much  to  his  innate  selfishness;  and 
his  thoughts  flew  to  his  own  cherished 
daughter. 

"Well,  Felix,"  he  said  rising,  "I'm  due— 
I've  barely  tune  to  make  it — at  a  consul- 
tation over  an  important  case,  so  that  we 
can't  go  any  farther  into  this  now.  But  I 
can  help  you.  I'm  sure  I  can,  if  you  will 
follow  orders.  I  shall  try  hypnosis.  It's 
the  only  thing  we  know,  yet,  that  really 
has  much  effect.  But  some  wonderful 
cures  have  been  made  with  it.  Come  back 
tonight.  My  evening  office  hour  is  from 
eight  to  nine.  Come  about  nine  o'clock, 
so  that  I  can  take  you  the  last  one  and 
have  plenty  of  time  for  experiment.  And 
there's  another  thing,  Felix, — ah!"  He 
stopped  suddenly,  as  a  little  spasm  of 
pain  crossed  his  face,  and  pressed  his  hand 
against  his  heart.  "It's  nothing,"  he 
went  on  deprecatingly,  at  the  other's  look 
of  inquiry.  "This  little  organ  hi  here," 
and  he  patted  his  breast,  "reminds  me 
of  its  existence,  once  in  a  while,  lately. 
I'm  ordered  to  take  a  rest,  and  I  suppose 
I'll  have  to  before  long." 

"You're  not  going  away?"  Brand  queried 


anxiously.     "You  won't  go  till  after  you've 
fixed  me  up?" 

"I  can't  go  for  some  time — unless  I  have 
to.  And  don't  mention  it  to  Mildred  or 
Mrs.  Annister.  Now,  about  that  other 
thing.  I  must  insist,  Felix,  that  you 
release  Mildred  from  this  engagement  be- 
tween you.  I  have  let  it  go  on  against 
my  own  judgment  too  long  already,  be- 
cause I  was  hoping  that  time  would  lessen 
her  infatuation.  But  in  the  light  of  all 
that  you  have  just  told  me  it  is  impossible- 
it  must  not  continue  another  day.  You 
ought  to  see  yourself  how  unfair  it  would 
be  to  her." 

"But  suppose,"  said  Brand,  with  the 
suggestion  of  a  sneer  in  his  voice,  "that 
Mildred  should  not  wish  to  be  released?" 

The  doctor  pressed  his  lips  together  and 
his  gray  eyes  flashed.  His  pale  face  looked 
very  weary.  "Her  wishes  can  make  no  dif- 
ference now,"  he  replied  decisively.  "Write 
to  her  and  say  that  you  wish  to  end  the 
engagement.  Make  any  excuse  that  you 
like.  But  you  must  not  see  her  again. 
That  is  final,  Felix.  Good-bye.  I'll  see 
you  tonight." 


CHAPTER  XXI 
HUGH  GORDON  TELLS  His  STORY 

DR.  ANNISTER  dismissed  his  last 
patient  and  looked  at  his  watch. 
It  was  nine  o'clock  and  Felix  Brand, 
he  thought,  was  probably  in  the  waiting 
room.  His  face  was  even  paler  than  usual 
and  its  deep  lines  told  of  pain,  anxiety 
and  spent  strength.  He  sat  down,  his 
head  upon  his  hand  and  his  thoughts  upon 
his  daughter. 

"Poor  child!"  he  said  to  himself.  "It 
will  go  hard  with  her.  But  there  can  be 
no  'ifs'  or  Bands'  about  it  now.  Her  mother 
must  take  her  away  where  there  will  be  no 
possibility  of  her  seeing  him  again.  Poor 
little  girl!" 

He  rose  with  a  weary  sigh  and  crossed 
to  the  door  into  the  waiting  room.  As 
he  threw  it  open  a  man  at  the  farther 
side  of  the  room  arose  and  came  toward 
him  with  a  quick,  firm  stride  and  a  con- 

(317) 


318     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

fident  manner.  He  saw  at  once  that  it 
was  not  Felix  Brand. 

"Good  evening,  Dr.  Annister,"  said  the 
stranger.  "I  know  you  were  expecting 
to  see  Mr.  Brand,  but  I  have  come  in  his 
place.  I  am  Hugh  Gordon." 

"I  am  glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Gordon," 
the  doctor  replied,  his  interest  at  once 
at  high  pitch.  "You  can  tell  me  the  other 
side  of  the  case.  I  met  you  once  before, 
I  believe.  Will  you  come  in?" 

The  physician  cast  a  keen  glance  at  his 
visitor  and  said  to  himself,  astonished,  that 
he  would  never  have  believed  this  phys- 
ical envelope  to  be  the  same  that  housed 
the  man  with  whom  he  had  talked  a  few 
hours  before.  Feature  and  coloring  were 
there,  it  was  true,  but  a  different  soul 
animated  the  body  and  lighted  the  coun- 
tenance and  made  of  the  whole  another 
man.  The  tell-tale  signs  of  evil  living  had 
vanished  from  the  face,  and  so  also  had 
its  expression  of  ultra  refinement  and 
sensitiveness,  while  in  the  eyes  no  longer 
shone  that  winning,  caressing  look  which 
had  been  a  magnet  for  the  hearts  of  women. 
This  man  held  his  head  high,  his  eyes  were 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     319 

keen,  penetrating,  virile,  and  in  his  coun- 
tenance the  doctor  read  sincerity,  force- 
fulness,  determination.  "'As  he  thinketh 
in  his  heart,  so  is  he'/'  Dr.  Annister  mused 
as  he  leaned  forward  to  listen  to  what  the 
young  man  was  saying. 

"I  have  come  to  tell  you  the  truth  about 
this  matter,  so  that  you  can  see  for  your- 
self that  Felix  Brand  is  not  worth  saving. 
You  promised  him  this  morning  that  you 
would  help  him.  But  when  you  hear 
what  I  can  tell  you  I  have  no  doubt  you 
will  feel,  as  I  do,  that  he  deserves  the  fate 
he  has  brought  upon  himself  and  that  the 
world  will  be  better  to  be  rid  of  him." 

"One  moment,"  said  the  doctor.  "Were 
you  aware  of  all  that  passed  between  us 
this  morning?  Do  you  know  all  that  hap- 
pens to  him?" 

"Everything  he  thinks  and  says  and 
does  I  know,  and  I  have  always  known. 
That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  I  have 
determined  that  he  must  go.  I  will  no 
longer  be  a  witness  within  his  body  of  his 
evil  deeds.  I  am  never  unconscious,  as 
he  is  always  when  he  goes  under.  And 
that  is  why,  also,  I  am  able  to  tell  you 


320      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

the  simple  truth.  It  is  not  so  strange  a 
story  as  you  may  think.  I  wonder  some- 
times why  something  of  the  sort  has  not 
*  happened  to  many  a  man. 

"It  began  with  that  incident  about  his 
sister  of  which  he  told  you.  But  it  wasn't 
an  accident.  He  wanted  her  seat  on  the 
limb  of  the  tree  and  when  she  wouldn't 
give  it  to  him  he  pushed  her  off.  She 
was  almost  killed  and  was  crippled  for 
life.  But  nobody,  except  him  and  her  and 
me,  has  ever  known  that  it  was  not  an 
accident.  He  surrendered  to  selfishness 
and  cowardice  and  for  the  first  time  in  his 
life  denied  his  conscience.  That  was  the 
beginning  of  me,  and  of  all  that  has  hap- 
pened since." 

Dr.  Annister  was  leaning  forward,  almost 
out  of  his  chair,  and  so  intense  was  the 
interest  with  which  he  was  listening  that 
his  pale  face  was  alight  and  its  lines  of 
anxiety  and  fatigue  smoothed  out. 

"I  see!"  he  exclaimed  eagerly.  "I 
begin  to  understand  how  it  was.  The 
shock,  the  struggle  within  himself  and 
the  revulsion  of  his  conscience  from  the 
victory  won  by  the  worse  side  of  his  nature 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     321 

started  up  a  new  center,  or  threw  off  a 
new  nebula,  of  consciousness — we  can  only 
vaguely  guess  at  the  process.  It  proved 
strong  enough  to  form  within  his  brain 
the  embryo  of  another  individuality. 

"I  have  thought  sometimes — "  the  doc- 
tor stopped  for  a  moment,  his  attention 
turning  inwards  again,  while  his  elbows 
sought  the  arms  of  the  chair  and  his  finger- 
tips came  together.  "I  am  beginning  to 
believe,"  he  went  on,  his  gaze  fixed  high 
up  on  the  wall,  "that  even  in  apparently 
normal  human  beings  there  may  exist  two 
or  more  of  these  nebulae  of  consciousness 
in  process  of  formation,  but  bound  up  so 
closely  with  the  dominating  consciousness 
that  they  never  quite  separate  themselves. 
The  case  never  becomes  that  of  complete 
dual  personality,  although  such  a  person 
may  have  within  himself  two  widely  dif- 
ferent sets  of  ideals  and  principles  of 
living. 

"Strangely  enough,  these  cases  seem 
always  to  be  evolved  out  of  the  person's 
attitude  toward  the  ethical  problems  of 
life.  There,  for  instance,  are  the  officers 
of  powerful  corporations  who  may  be 


21 


322     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

rapacious,  ruthless,  brutal,  criminal,  in 
their  business  methods,  but  in  private 
life  the  kindest,  most  sympathetic  and 
generous  of  men.  Yes,  I  am  beginning 
to  think  it  may  be  that  such  men  have 
set  going  within  themselves  some  such 
physiological  and  psychological  process  as 
this  which  has  nearly  overwhelmed  Felix 
Brand. 

"Who  can  tell  what  a  few  more  years 
of  investigation  and  study  of  this  problem 
will  give  us!"  The  finger-tips  were  rhyth- 
mically tapping  and  the  physician's  face 
was  alight  with  interest,  although  he  seemed 
for  the  moment  to  have  forgotten  his  com- 
panion. "Perhaps  in  another  generation 
or  two  we  shall  have  discovered  that  it 
is  medical  not  legal  treatment  that  pirate 
captains  of  industry  stand  in  need  of. 
Perhaps  the  too  shrewd  financiers  of  that 
day  will  not  be  fined  or  sent  to  prison  but 
compelled  to  take  courses  of  hypnotic 
treatment." 

Dr.  Annister's  gaze,  wandering  down- 
ward, fell  upon  his  companion,  and  he  came 
back  to  the  matter  in  hand  with  a  depreca- 
tory smile. 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     323 

"  Pardon  me,  Mr.  Gordon.  I've  been 
going  far  astray.  But  the  whole  question 
interests  me  deeply.  Strange,  strange, 
what  havoc  within  a  man's  brain  that  war 
between  right  and  wrong  can  make,  when 
his  own  fierce  desires  get  mixed  up  in  it! 
Will  you  go  on,  please?  After  this  first 
act  of  cruelty,  unintentional  doubtless, 
but  afterward  concealed,  out  of  cowardice 
and  the  desire  to  advance  his  own  selfish 
interests — then?" 

"Why,  it  was  the  beginning  of  a  con- 
stantly growing  habit  of  selfishness  in 
thought  and  action.  I  could  tell  you  of 
thousands  of  little  incidents,  each  of  which 
helped  to  strengthen  his  conception  of 
himself  as  the  center  of  everything  and  his 
notion  that  his  wishes  must  be  gratified  and 
his  desires  satisfied,  at  whatever  cost  to 
others.  This  didn't  come  all  at  once,  you 
know.  It  was  the  growth  of  years,  and 
kept  on  all  through  his  youth  and  early 
manhood,  till  it  reached  its  present  abom- 
inable state.  And  as  it  grew,  so  did  I." 

"  Yes,  yes!"  the  physician  broke  in  again. 
"  Every  impulse  toward  altruistic  thought 
or  action  that  was  denied  broke  off  and 


324     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

attached  itself  to  the  other  nebula  of  con- 
sciousness. Thus  he  set  up  within  him- 
self two  centers  of  consciousness,  of  moral 
growth,  one  altruistic  and  the  other  ego- 
tistic. And,  as  these  grew,  certain  other 
mental  qualities  were  caught  within  them, 
so  that,  when  the  separation  was  at  last 
complete,  each  individuality  had,  inten- 
sified, the  qualities  that,  mingled  together, 
ought  to  have  gone  to  the  making  of  an 
evenly  balanced,  highly  endowed  man." 

"That's  it.  And  now  the  question  is, 
which  of  us  are  you  going  to  try  to  save? 
Which  will  you  allow  to  live?" 

"Why,  I'm  going  to  try  to  put  you 
together  again,  to  mingle  you  into  one 
proportioned,  rounded  individuality." 

Gordon's  manner  bristled  with  aggres- 
siveness. "You  can't  do  it,"  he  exclaimed 
abruptly.  "It's  beyond  human  power, 
now.  'All  the  king's  horses  and  all  the 
king's  men'  wouldn't  be  enough  for  such 
a  job.  Felix  Brand  is  beyond  saving. 
He  chose  his  part  and  wilfully  kept  in  it. 
Let  him  suffer  the  consequences.  I  was 
his  conscience — the  part  of  him  in  which 
conscience  abode.  He  denied  me  and 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     325 

repulsed  me  over  and  over  again,  until 
he  so  calloused  himself  that  there  was  no 
point  left  for  attack.  And  so  we  have 
become  two  separate  and  complete  human 
beings." 

Gordon's  words  were  rushing  forth  in 
an  impulsive  torrent  and  the  physician 
held  up  an  arresting  finger.  "No,  you're 
wrong  there.  You  are  not  two  complete 
human  beings.  It  has  come  about  that 
he  has  divested  himself  of  moral  sense. 
But  he  still  has  a  wonderful  esthetic  gift, 
of  very  great  value  to  the 'world.  Have 
you  any  part  in  that?" 

"No,  I  have  not,"  was  Gordon's  quick 
reply.  "I  admit  I  am  lacking  on  that 
side  of  my  nature.  But  is  that  the  most 
important  thing  for  a  man  to  possess?" 

He  sprang  to  his  feet  and  strode  about 
as  he  went  on  pouring  out  his  arguments 
with  emphatic,  forceful  manner.  Dr.  An- 
nister  watched  him,  wondering  at  his 
apparent  size.  For  he  looked  a  considerably 
larger  man  than  did  Felix  Brand.  The 
light  gray  clothing,  of  looser  fit,  made  some 
difference,  but  the  physician  decided  that 
his  manner  was  responsible  for  most  of 


326     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

the  illusion — his  self-confident  stride,  his 
masterful  quality,  the  impression  he  gave 
of  abundant  vitality  and  of  strength  of 
character  and  of  body.  These  were  all 
in  strong  contrast  to  Brand's  courtly,  win- 
ning manners,  affable  tones  and  leisurely, 
graceful  movements. 

"Felix  Brand  has  become  a  monster, 
a  swollen  toad  of  egotism.  He  cares  for 
nothing  but  his  own  advantage,  his  own 
interests,  his  own  pleasures,  and  these 
he  reaches  out  and  takes,  grabs  them,  with- 
out any  regard  for  other  people's  rights 
or  necessities.  That  kind  of  selfishness 
is  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  Felix  Brand  is 
its  incarnation.  He  is  soaked  with  wicked- 
ness. Oh,  you  do  not  know  the  half  of  it, 
Dr.  Annister,  though  you  have  guessed 
something  from  the  change  in  the  expres- 
sion of  his  countenance.  For  years  he  has 
been  like  a  carrier  of  typhoid,  spreading 
the  contagion  of  his  own  sinful  nature 
wherever  he  went,  himself  unpunished, 
even  admired,  looked  up  to  and  patterned 
after.  Do  you  want  to  keep  such  a  man 
alive?  Do  you  think,  do  you  really  be- 
lieve, Dr.  Annister,  that  the  genius  of  such 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     327 

a  man  as  that,  whatever  it  is,  could  make 
amends  to  the  world  for  all  the  evil  that 
he  does?" 

"You  forget,  Mr.  Gordon,  that  it  is  no 
part  of  my  purpose  to  keep  him  as  he  is. 
It  is  my  duty  to  save  him  from  the  con- 
sequences of  his  folly  and  of  his  perverted 
view  of  his  relations  with  the  world — to 
make  him  whole  again." 

"You  can't  do  it,  Dr.  Annister,  you 
can't  do  it!  Oil  and  water  will  no  more 
mix  than  my  characteristics  and  his  can 
be  made  to  mingle  in  a  smooth  blend 
again.  My  purpose  in  life  is  to  add  to  the 
well-being  of  the  world.  I  want  to  lessen 
its  poverty  and  its  degradation  and  help 
to  reform  the  soul -poisoning  conditions 
under  which  so  many  thousands  live.  I 
have  planned  my  life  and  my  head  is  full 
of  schemes  for  the  betterment  of  the  world. 
I  find  it  easy  to  make  money.  I  shall 
be  rich  soon.  My  chief  interest  and 
pleasure  will  be  in  using  my  money  to 
work  out  those  plans.  It  is  not  my  inten- 
tion to  do  this  as  charity  or  according  to 
ordinary,  philanthropic  methods.  I've  no 
use  for  charity.  It  is  wrong  and  it  only 


328     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

makes  things  worse.  What  I  purpose 
doing  is  to  carry  out  my  business  schemes 
by  such  methods  as  will  enable  those  who 
work  with  me  and  for  me  to  earn  their 
own  betterments  in  life,  and  then  to 
enlighten  and  guide  .them  in  the  spending 
and  investment  of  their  earnings.  I  want 
to  prove  that  that  sort  of  thing  is  possible 
and  profitable.  In  that  and  similar  ways, 
which  will  benefit  and  make  others  happy 
quite  as  much  as  they  will  contribute  to  my 
satisfaction,  I  expect  to  spend  my  life. 
Felix  Brand  will  design  some  beautiful 
buildings.  But  he  will  add  to  the  rotten- 
ness of  the  world  and  spread  disaster  and 
misery  with  every  day  of  his  life.  Will 
the  buildings  atone  for  all  that  evil?" 

Dr.  Annister's  person,  sunk  in  the  depths 
of  his  arm-chair,  looked  even  smaller  than 
usual,  in  comparison  with  this  energetic, 
dominating  figure  that  stood  above  him, 
speaking  with  emphasis  and  conviction, 
instinct  with  determined  will.  He  leaned 
forward  and  began  to  tap  his  finger-tips, 
his  face  thoughtful.  Silence  fell  upon  them 
for  a  moment. 

"My  mission,"  he  presently  said,  slowly 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     329 

and  solemnly,  "is  to  heal,  not  to  judge. 
But,"  he  added,  in  a  mournful  tone,  "you 
give  me  an  idea  of  what  a  splendid  man 
Felix  Brand  might  have  been  if  he  had  not 
so  perverted  and  maimed  himself." 

Gordon  made  a  gesture  of  impatience 
and  his  dark  eyes  flashed.  "He  chose 
his  way.  Let  him  walk  in  it.  I  did  my 
best  to  warn  him  where  it  would  lead.  As 
long  as  I  lived  in  him,  I  was  his  conscience 
and  tried  to  plead  with  him  and  argue 
with  him.  After  I  broke  from  him  and 
began  to  live  my  own  life  I  wrote  letters 
to  him  and  told  him  the  sort  of  creature 
he  was  becoming  and  what  he  might  expect. 

"It  was  as  if  we  were  twins,  with  only 
one  body  between  us.  At  first  I  felt 
strongly  the  bond  that  held  us  together. 
At  the  start  I  did  not  want  to  do  anything 
to  injure  him.  I  thought  we  might  both 
live,  taking  turns  with  our  one  body.  But 
as  soon  as  I  tried  to  make  him  see  the  evil 
of  his  ways  he  began  to  hate  me.  His 
life  grew  so  much  worse  that  I  lost  all 
patience  with  him.  He  would  pay  no 
attention  to  my  warnings. 

"When  he  decided  that  he  wanted  that 


330      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

appointment  to  the  Municipal  Art  Com- 
mission, of  course,  characteristically,  he 
wanted  it  at  once,  by  fair  means  or  foul. 
I  warned  him  not  to  do  anything  under- 
handed and  he  told  me  to  mind  my  own 
affairs.  I  told  him  I'd  show  him  up  if  he 
dabbled  in  any  unscrupulous  methods. 
But  he  went  straight  ahead  after  what 
he  wanted.  You  know  what  the  conse- 
quences were." 

"Yes,  I  remember,"  the  physician  as- 
sented. "It  was  almost  my  first  intimation, 
really  my  first  proof,  that  Felix  was  not 
what  I,  and  everyone,  had  thought  him." 

"Oh,  he  had  kept  the  outside  of  his 
life  as  admirable  as  any  one  could  wish. 
But  I  knew,  long  before  that,  how  dirty 
and  misshapen  his  soul  was.  Even  then, 
though,  if  he  had  heeded  my  warnings 
and  shown  any  desire  to  straighten  out 
his  theory  of  life  and  clean  up  his  methods 
of  living  I  would  have  done  my  best  to 
help  him.  At  that  time  I  would  even 
have  given  up  my  own  desire  to  live  and 
tried  to  reincorporate  myself  with  him. 
But  it  was  no  good,  any  of  it. 

"There  was  the  case  of  that  young  woman, 


HUGH  GORDON'S  STORY     331 

Miss  Andrews,  a  nice  girl,  with  talent, 
and  likely  to  make  a  fine  success  in  her 
profession.  But  Felix  Brand  crossed  her 
path,  took  a  fancy  to  her,  talked  his  dam- 
nable ideas  into  her  head  and  set  her  feet 
on  the  downward  path.  She's  going  down 
now  at  a  lively  rate,  thanks  to  the  lessons 
she  had  from  him,  and  she'll  soon  be  at 
the  bottom.  It  was  that  incident  as  much 
as  any  one  thing  that  determined  me  I'd 
live  my  own  life,  and  the  whole  of  it,  and 
let  him  work  out  his  own  damnation  as 
fast  as  he  could.  I  didn't  want  to  be 
instrumental  in  continuing  his  life  as  such 
a  source  of  evil.  Do  you,  Dr.  Annister?" 

The  little  physician  sat  with  his  finger- 
tips softly  beating  together,  his  attention 
all  in  drawn  and  his  thought  concentrated 
upon  the  problem  which  had  been  proposed 
to  him.  At  last  he  rose  slowly  to  his  feet 
and  turned  his  gray  eyes  upon  Gordon, 
whose  intent  gaze  was  fastened  upon  his 
face. 

"Your  meaning,  as  I  understand  it, 
Mr.  Gordon,  is  that  I  should  refrain  from 
giving  him  any  assistance.  And  you  be- 
lieve that  you  can,  in  that  case,  dominate 


332     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

him  completely,  force  him  out  of  conscious- 
ness, keep  him  out  of  it,  and  yourself  enjoy, 
from  that  time  on,  uninterrupted,  active 
life,  in  his  body." 

"That  is  what  I  think  I  shall  be  justified 
in  doing." 

"Then  I  must  tell  you  that  I  cannot 
help  you.  My  Hippocratic  oath  binds 
me  to  the  healing,  the  saving  of  life.  He 
is  my  patient.  He  came  to  me  asking 
my  aid.  I  must  give  it  to  him,  to  the  best 
of  my  ability." 

Hugh  Gordon  straightened  up  and  threw 
back  his  head.  It  seemed  to  his  compan- 
ion almost  as  if  his  body  grew  suddenly 
larger  in  the  tensing  of  his  purpose  and 
his  will. 

"And  I  must  tell  you,  Dr.  Annister," 
he  exclaimed,  his  eyes  flashing  and  his 
face  determined,  "that  I  shall  succeed 
in  spite  of  you  both.  You  cannot  make 
a  good  man  out  of  him;  and  it  is  out- 
rageous, it  is  impossible,  that  evil  should 
thus  triumph  over  good.  I  will  not  be 
submerged  again.  I  have  grown  stronger 
as  he  has  grown  weaker  and  more  wicked. 
He  cannot  hold  out  against  me  any  longer. 


HUGH   GORDON'S  STORY     333 

I  shall  give  him  one  more  chance  to  put 
his  affairs  in  order  and  make  it  known  that 
he  will  never  return. 

"It  has  been  a  hard-fought  battle  be- 
tween us  for  the  possession  of  this  body. 
But  I  have  won  it.  I  am  stronger  than 
he  is  now  and,  if  I  wished,  I  could  go  out 
from  this  office  and  never  let  him  see 
the  light  of  day  again.  But  it  is  right 
for  him  to  have  a  few  days  more. 

"And  I  want  him  to  tell  you  one  thing 
that  he  has  done.  He  shall  tell  you  with 
his  own  lips.  It  is  your  right  to  know, 
but  he  will  not  tell  you  the  truth  unless 
I  make  him.  He  shall  come  to  see  you 
tomorrow  and  you  can  try  hypnotizing 
him  if  you  want  to.  But  before  you  begin 
give  him  an  opportunity  to  make  his 
confession.  I  shall  make  him  speak.  Good 
night,  Dr.  Annister." 

The  physician  sat  long  in  his  big  arm- 
chair, his  forehead  upon  his  locked  fingers. 
When  he  arose  his  face  was  haggard  and, 
unconscious  of  the  movement,  he  pressed 
one  hand  against  his  breast. 

"No,"  he  said  aloud,  "I  was  right. 
There  is  a  possibility  that  I  can  yet  rein- 


334      FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

carnate  these  two  warring  principles  of 
selfishness  and  altruism  into  one  big- 
hearted,  splendidly  endowed  human  being. 
I  must  take  the  chances  and  do  my  best. 
Oh,  man,  man!  How  little  you  know  what 
you  are  doing  when  you  trifle  with  either 
your  soul  or  your  body!  And  what  mir- 
acles you  expect  of  us,  to  save  you  from  the 
consequences  you  have  richly  earned — us 
who  know  so  little  more  than  you  do!" 


CHAPTER  XXII 

"A  MOST  INTERESTING  CASE!" 

NINE  o'clock  of  the  next  evening 
came  and  passed.  Dr.  Annister 
dismissed  his  last  patient,  looked 
into  his  waiting  room  and  found  it  empty, 
then  sat  down  to  wait  for  a  few  minutes, 
unwilling  to  take  from  Felix  Brand  what 
he  feared  might  be  his  last  chance. 

"If  I  can  give  him  some  help  tonight," 
the  physician's  thoughts  ran,  "if  I  can 
restore  his  self-confidence  and  his  grip  on 
himself,  that  will  be  just  the  impulse  in 
the  right  direction  that  he  needs.  After 
that  it  will  be  easier  for  him  and  he  may 
win  yet.  A  most  interesting  case!  More 
interesting  even  than  Dr.  Prince's  Miss 
Beauchamp!  The  cleavage  is  complete 
and  clean.  If  I  can  cure  it,  it  will  be  the 
most  remarkable  case  on  record!" 

There  was  a  tap  at  the  open  door  behind 
him  and  he  heard  Brand's  voice  saying, 
"Are  you  here,  Dr.  Annister?" 

(335) 


336     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"Come  in,  Felix,  come  in,"  the  doctor 
replied,  rising,  with  more  of  professional 
interest  than  personal  friendliness  in  his 
tones.  "  You've  come  for  your  first  treat- 
ment, I  suppose?  Well,  we'll  see  what  we 
can  do." 

Brand  was  moving  about  the  room  with 
seemingly  aimless  steps,  a  curious  unwill- 
ingness upon  his  face.  Within  himself 
he  was  feeling  a  sense  of  compulsion  that 
was  moving  him  against  his  will.  Within 
his  brain  he  seemed  not  so  much  to  hear 
as  to  feel  a  voice  saying,  "Tell  him!  Tell 
him!"  And  with  all  his  strength  he  was 
battling  against  these  inward  commands. 

Dr.  Annister  noticed  his  stubborn  look 
and  the  defiant  poise  of  his  head.  "What 
is  it,  Felix?"  queried  the  physician.  "  Don't 
you  want  to  take  the  treatment?  Have 
you  changed  your  mind?" 

"No,  sir.  I've  not  changed  my  mind. 
I'm  more  anxious  than  ever  about  it.  Shall 
we  begin  at  once?" 

Suddenly  his  ears  seemed  to  roar  with 
the  sound  of  "Tell  him!  Tell  him!  TeU 
him!"  He  started  and  glanced  fearfully 
about  the  room. 


"AN  INTERESTING  CASE"   337 

"I  will  not!  I  will  not!  I  will  not!" 
His  tongue  formed  the  words  of  refusal 
behind  closed  lips,  pressed  together  in 
a  hard  line. 

Dr.  Annister  drew  a  quick,  deep  breath. 
"I'm  not  in  very  good  shape  tonight, 
Felix,  but  I'll  do  the  best  I  can  for  you," 
he  said,  as  he  stepped  to  a  cabinet  at  the 
back  of  the  room,  where  he  measured  out 
and  swallowed  a  dose  of  medicine.  "Now, 
if  you're  ready,  we'll  begin,"  he  went  on, 
and  was  surprised  to  see  his  companion 
stagger  back  a  step  or  two  and  pass  his 
hand  irresolutely  over  his  face. 

"Yes,  Dr.  Annister,  at  once.  But  there 
is  something—  '  the  words  came  slowly,  in 
a  monotonous,  strained  tone  through  his 
barely  opened  lips. 

Sudden  recollection  flashed  upon  the 
doctor's  mind  of  something  Gordon  had 
said  the  night  before.  He  had  forgotten 
it,  in  his  interest  in  the  peculiar  features 
of  the  case,  until  that  moment.  "Oh," 
he  exclaimed,  "is  there  something  you 
want  to  speak  of  first?  What  is  it?" 

Brand's  face  was  pale,  his  eyes  staring 
and  his  hands  clenched  in  the  struggle 

22 

M 
X 


338     FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

he  was  still  making  against  that  inward 
mastery  bent  on  forcing  him  to  a  con- 
fession he  was  determined  he  would  not 
make.  For  he  greatly  feared  its  effect 
upon  Dr.  Annister's  intention  to  help  him, 
while  its  other  probable  consequences  he 
was  most  unwilling  to  accept. 

But  that  other  will  within  himself  was 
stronger  than  his  own  determination.  Al- 
ready he  felt  his  defiance  growing  numb 
before  it.  He  walked  irresolutely  across 
the  room  and  back  while  Dr.  Annister 
looked  at  him  with  surprise  and  dawn- 
ing suspicion. 

"Well,  what  is  it?"  the  physician  re- 
peated. 

Felix  stopped  short  and  gave  himself  an 
angry  shake.  Then  with  a  little  snarl  he 
faced  about  and  began,  with  eyes  averted: 

"I  don't  suppose  it  will  please  you  to 
hear  it,"  he  blurted  out,  and  the  other 
could  not  know  that  the  sharpness  in  his 
tones  was  merely  the  expression  of  his 
futile  rage  against  that  hated  other  will, 
housed  within  his  own  body,  that  was 
forcing  him  to  do  a  thing  sure  to  interfere 
with  his  plans  and  pleasures.  "But  I'm 


"AN  INTERESTING  CASE"   339 

going  to  tell  you  and  you  can  make  the 
best  of  it." 

In  his  impotent  anger  he  was  ready  now 
to  say  any  ruthless  thing  that  occurred 
to  him.  And  not  for  any  price  would 
he  have  had  Dr.  Annister  discover  that  he 
was  not  making  this  confession  of  his  own 
accord. 

"You  said  yesterday  that  the  engage- 
ment between  Mildred  and  me  must  be 
ended.  Well,  it  is  ended,  but  not  in  the 
way  you  meant.  We  are  married." 

"What!  What  do  you  say?"  the  doctor 
exclaimed,  wheeling  toward  him  with  frown- 
ing brow. 

"I  said,  we're  married  already.  We've 
been  married  two  months.  I  took  her  over 
to  Jersey  one  day  and  we  were  married 
there."  " 

"You  dared — Felix  Brand,  you  dared 
do  this,  knowing  what  you  knew?" 

"It  seems  so,"  the  other  coolly  replied. 
"Mildred  was  quite  willing,"  he  went  on 
with  a  little  sneer.  "I  needed  her  love. 
I'd  have  been  a  fool  not  to  take  what  she 
was  ready  to  give  me.  And  I  married  her. 
Maybe  I  was  a  fool  to  do  that,  but  I  did." 


340     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

"A  fool?  You  were  a  knave,  a  wretch,  to 
take  advantage  of  an  innocent  girl's  love!" 
cried  her  father,  moving  toward  him  with 
threatening  manner  and  blazing  eyes. 
Then,  suddenly,  the  physician  staggered 
back  and  sank  into  his  arm-chair. 

"  Leave  me,  Felix,"  he  said,  and  though 
his  tones  were  suddenly  grown  feeble,  they 
still  vibrated  with  angry  contempt.  "Go, 
now,  at  once.  I  don't  want  you  near  me. 
But  I'll  see  you  again  about  this  matter. 
And  if  you  try  to  communicate  with  Mildred 
I'll  have  you  arrested!  Go!  Go!" 

The  architect  turned  on  his  heel  and  left 
the  room.  Dr.  Annister  sank  wearily 
into  his  chair  and  his  hands  sought  their 
accustomed  position.  Then  they  too  fell 
back  against  his  chest.  "Mildred!"  his 
white  lips  whispered,  then  stiffened  and 
were  still. 


"  MILDRED!  "  His  WHITE  LIPS  WHISPERED,  THEN  STIFFENED 
AND  WERE  STILL 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
WHITHER? 

FELIX  BRAND  opened  his  eyes,  then 
let  the  lids  quickly  flutter  down 
again.  He  was  afraid  to  look  about 
him,  for  he  was  no  longer  sure  where  he 
might  awaken  after  what  seemed  to  him 
to  have  been  no  more  than  an  ordinary 
night's  sleep.  Apprehensively  he  lifted 
one  hand  to  his  face  and  felt  of  his  upper 
lip.  There  was  no  mustache  upon  it.  Re- 
assured, he  opened  his  eyes  again,  and  with 
deep  relief  gazed  about  his  familiar  bed- 
room. 

"I  guess  it's  still  the  next  day  after  yes- 
terday," he  said  to  himself  with  profound 
satisfaction.  For  a  moment  he  centered 
his  attention  upon  himself.  "And  that 
damned  Gordon  has  subsided,"  he  mut- 
tered. "I  don't  feel  him  at  all  this  morn- 
ing. That's  promising.  I've  had  a  good 
night's  rest,  now  I'll  have  a  good  day  and 
tonight  I'll  go  to  see  Dr.  Annister  and  let 

(341) 


342     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

him  begin — the  devil!"  Remembrance  had 
flashed  upon  him  of  his  last  night's  inter- 
view with  the  physician. 

"But  he  promised  to  help  me  and  he'll 
have  to  do  it.  I'U  do  anything  he  says 
about  Mildred — let  her  divorce  me  if  he 
wants  her  to.  A  wife's  a  nuisance.  I'm 
sure  I  don't  want  to  be  tied  up  with  one. 
What  did  I  do  it  for  anyway?" 

Notwithstanding  his  confidence  that  there 
had  been  no  hiatus  in  his  life  since  his 
last  waking  hours,  Brand  glanced  with 
some  trepidation  at  the  date  line  of  the 
morning  paper.  "That's  right,"  he  thought. 

His  eyes  dropped  down  over  the  head- 
lines and  he  stopped  stock  still,  his  face 
paling.  "Dead!"  he  exclaimed  aloud. 
"Now  what's  to  become  of  me!" 

As  he  read  the  article,  displayed  prom- 
inently on  the  front  page,  which  told  of 
the  death  of  Dr.  Philip  Annister,  the 
famous  nerve  specialist,  from  heart-disease, 
he  found  that  he  had  been,  in  all  probability, 
the  last  person  who  had  seen  the  physician 
alive.  He  remembered  the  sudden  failure 
of  strength  which  had  sent  the  doctor 
staggering  back  into  his  arm-chair. 


WHITHER  343 

"I  suppose,"  he  said  to  himself,  and  was 
aware  of  no  feeling  of  compunction,  "it 
was  what  I  told  him  that  did  the  business. 
If  that  damned  whelp  Gordon  had  let 
me  alone — what  am  I  to  do  now?" 

When  the  architect  appeared  at  his 
office  one  look  at  him  told  Henrietta  that 
she  was  not  to  have  a  comfortable  day. 
"Well,  it's  my  last  one  here,"  she  thought, 
and  had  occasion,  as  the  hours  wore  on, 
to  repeat  the  assurance  to  herself  many 
times,  for  comfort's  sake.  Doubly  repel- 
lent though  her  service  under  him  had 
become  since  that  sad  day  of  her  sister's 
disaster,  Henrietta  had  felt,  nevertheless, 
that  justice  demanded  of  her  to  continue 
in  it  until  the  time  for  which  she  had  given 
notice  should  expire.  So,  loyal  to  her 
sense  of  fairness,  she  had  kept  on,  while 
aversion  deepened  into  loathing  and,  of 
late,  was  even  touched  with  fear. 

Over  and  over  again,  as  her  troubles 
and  apprehensions  pressed  sharply  upon 
her,  did  her  thoughts  recur  to  Hugh  Gordon 
with  longing  remembrance  of  the  sense 
of  protection  and  security  she  had  felt  in 
his  presence.  So  much  did  she  dwell  upon 


344     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

her  memories  of  the  hours  they  had  spent 
together  that  in  her  secret  heart  the  feeling 
toward  him  of  intimacy  and  confidence 
grew  ever  stronger,  and  more  and  more 
frequently  the  thought  would  leap  into 
her  mind,  "I  wish  Hugh  Gordon  were 
here." 

The  day  which  was  to  be  the  last  of  her 
service  as  Felix  Brand's  secretary  proved 
to  be  the  most  trying  of  all  that  she  had 
endured.  As  one  unpleasant  episode  suc- 
ceeded another  her  eyes  sought  the  clock 
again  and  again  and  she  told  herself/' It  will 
be  only  four  hours  more,"  or,  "Now  it's 
only  two  hours  and  a  half,"  and  again, 
"In  seventy  minutes  I  shall  be  through." 

As  the  hours  dragged  on  it  seemed  to 
her  that  Brand's  temper  grew  steadily 
worse.  And  he  went  restlessly  from  one 
thing  to  another,  unable  to  concentrate  his 
attention  upon  anything.  He  had  on 
hand  several  pieces  of  work,  all  of  which 
Henrietta  knew  he  was  anxious  to  finish 
as  soon  as  possible.  But  he  would  take 
up  first  one,  then  another,  only  to  throw 
each  one  down  impatiently  with  a  muttered 
oath  after  a  few  minutes  of  effort. 


WHITHER  345 

Henrietta  did  not  know,  as  Dr.  Annister 
had  not  known  of  his  inward  compulsion 
the  night  before,  that  within  him  a  stern 
monitor  was  making  its  orders  felt  and 
trying  to  force  him  to  write  the  message 
which  was  to  set  the  seal  of  finality  upon 
his  next  disappearance. 

He  was  facing  the  utter  annihilation  of 
his  soul,  his  personal  being,  while  his  body, 
dwelt  in  by  his  ruthless  enemy,  should 
still  live  on,  seeing  the  sunshine,  breathing 
the  sweet  air,  loving  life.  He  drew  back, 
terrified  but  wrathful,  from  the  brink  of 
this  black  void  to  which  his  luring  desires 
had  led  him. 

What  was  it,  that  gulf  of  nothingness, 
into  which  his  soul  had  plunged  so  many 
times  already?  Down,  down,  to  what  un- 
plumbed  depths  had  it  gone,  those  other 
times?  True,  it  had  come  back.  But 
it  had  brought  no  tidings  of  that  dumb, 
black  vast  into  which  it  had  sunk.  And 
thinner  and  thinner  had  grown  the  thread 
that  had  drawn  it  back  from  that  unsensed 
abyss  until  now  he  knew  that  it  was  ready 
to  break.  His  soul  was  numb  with  the 
conviction  that,  let  it  be  thrust  once  more 


346      FATE   OF  FELIX  BRAND 

over  the  brink,  it  would  drop  beyond 
recall  into  oblivion. 

It  was  his  own  death  warrant  that  this 
masterful  force  within  him  was  ordering 
him  to  write — the  death  warrant  of  him, 
Felix  Brand,  ardent  lover  of  life  and  but 
barely  past  its  beginning,  of  all  of  him 
save  only  his  fair  physical  envelope,  which 
would  still  live  and  be  glad,  though  he  had 
passed  into  nothingness. 

Stronger  and  stronger,  the  more  he  re- 
sisted, grew  this  inner  compulsion,  until  it 
seemed  to  have  entered  into  his  every 
nerve  and  bone  and  muscle  and  he  feared 
to  remain  at  his  desk  lest  it  force  his  unwill- 
ing hand  to  write.  For  an  hour  he  loitered 
about,  staying  his  steps  in  other  parts  of 
the  room,  wherever  he  could  make  pre- 
tense of  busying  himself. 

But  at  last,  in  the  late  afternoon,  he 
suddenly  found  himself  moving  in  the 
direction  of  his  desk.  He  stopped,  braced 
himself,  took  another  step,  another,  and 
another,  with  feet  that  he  could  not  compel 
to  cling  to  the  floor.  And,  after  long 
minutes  of  struggle,  he  sank  finally  into 
his  desk  chair, 


WHITHER  347 

But  even  yet  he  would  not  give  up. 
The  muscles  of  his  ami  bulged,  his  neck 
sinews  stood  out  and  his  eyes  glared  red 
and  wrathful  in  the  effort  he  was  making 
to  be  his  own  master.  But  slowly,  with 
jerking  movements,  impelled  by  that  inex- 
orable force,  his  hand  moved  across  the 
desk,  sought  to  stay  itself  upon  book  or 
inkwell,  then,  at  last  completely  over- 
mastered, took  pen  and  wrote — wrote  the 
words  sent  down  to  it  by  that  dominating 
power  that  had  taken  possession  of  his  will. 

He  glowered  at  the  letter  as  it  lay  before 
him  in  its  envelope,  sealed,  stamped  and 
addressed  to  "Miss  Mildred  Annister," 
and  muttered,  "I'll  not  let  it  go!  I'll  tear 
it  up!  I'll  get  the  best  of  him  yet!" 

At  that  moment  his  secretary  appeared 
at  his  door  and  asked  him  concerning  the 
disposition  of  certain  papers.  She  was 
putting  everything  in  order,  she  told  him, 
so  that  her  successor  would  have  no  dif- 
ficulty in  beginning  the  work. 

"Can't  you  wait  a  minute?"  he  snarled 
at  her  over  his  shoulder. 

"Oh,  dear!"  thought  Henrietta,  shrinking 
back.  "What's  wrong  now,  I  wonder! 


348     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

Well,  I'll  be  through  in  ten  minutes,  and 
nothing  very  dreadful  can  happen  in  that 
time." 

Brand  rose,  swearing  angrily,  and  turned 
upon  her.  The  affright  and  consternation 
in  her  face  maddened  him  the  more. 

"Well,  what  do  you  want?"  he  demanded 
roughly.  She  repeated  what  she  had  said. 

"You're  not  going  to  quit  today?"  he 
exclaimed,  striding  back  and  forth,  his 
heart  raging  against  the  letter  on  his  desk 
and  all  that  it  meant. 

She  reminded  him  that  the  time  for  which 
she  had  agreed  to  remain  expired  that  day. 
"Haven't  you  engaged  any  one  else,  Mr. 
Brand?"  she  asked,  quailing  a  little  as  she 
saw  the  violent  anger  that  possessed  him. 

"No!  What  time  have  I  had  to  hunt  up 
secretaries?  I  can't  do  without  you.  You'll 
have  to  stay  another  week." 

Henrietta's  spirit  rose.  "I  shall  not 
stay  another  day,  Mr.  Brand!  I've  given 
you  ample  notice,  and  I  have  secured 
another  position.  I  go  to  work  there  next 
week." 

He  wheeled  and  strode  toward  her,  a 
menacing  figure.  "I  tell  you,  you'll  have 


WHITHER  349 

to  stay  another  week!  You'll  get  no  more 
money  from  me  unless  you  do!"  he  shouted. 

She  saw  that  he  was  beside  himself  with 
a  rage  that,  to  her,  was  inexplainable, 
and  she  retreated  as  he  came  onward  until 
she  stood  with  her  back  against  the  wall 
and  he  threatened  in  front  of  her,  his 
face  working  with  unrestrained  passion. 
The  thought  flashed  upon  her  that  perhaps 
he  had  gone  suddenly  insane. 

"  You've  got  to  stay,"  Brand  shouted 
again.  " I'll  not  pay  you  unless  you  do!" 

He  raised  his  clenched  fist,  as  if  he  were 
about  to  strike  her  in  the  face.  She  threw 
up  her  arm  to  ward  off  the  blow  and  her 
thoughts  flew  to  the  man  upon  whom  they 
had  dwelt  so  much  these  recent  days, 
with  quick  longing  for  his  care  and  protec- 
tion. 

"Oh,  Hugh!  Hugh!  If  you  were  here!" 
she  whispered. 

Low  as  was  the  sound  it  reached  the 
ears  of  him  who  stood  in  front  of  her  with 
drawn  fist  and  threatening  mien.  He 
started  back  and  she,  with  her  arm  before 
her  face,  did  not  see  the  awesome  look 
that  leaped  across  his  countenance.  His 


350     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

arm  dropped  and  for  a  moment  his  face 
was  the  battle-ground  of  fierce,  contending 
wills  and  furious  passions.  Then  his  whole 
body  writhed  as  if  in  a  convulsion,  his 
arms  sprang  straight  up  in  the  air  and  a 
cry  of  mortal  agony,  of  defeat,  despair  and 
hopeless,  futile  wrath  rang  through  the 
room. 

So  uncanny  and  so  heartbroken  was  that 
cry,  as  might  be  the  howl  of  a  lost  soul 
raging  impotently,  that  it  seemed  to  stop 
the  course  of  the  very  blood  in  her  veins. 
In  fear  and  terror  she  dropped  her  guarding 
arm,  half  feeling  already  the  blow  she 
expected  to  receive  hi  her  face,  and  quail- 
ing from  the  raving  madman  she  was  sure 
was  about  to  spring  upon  her. 

But  instead  of  Felix  Brand,  frenzied  and 
brutal,  her  eyes  fell  upon  the  man  whose 
help  she  had  invoked.  Hugh  Gordon 
was  before  her,  his  arms  upraised  as  if 
hi  gratitude  to  heaven,  his  lifted  face  glow- 
ing with  triumph.  She  stared  at  him  with 
wide,  terrified  eyes  and  cowered  against 
the  wall,  all  her  faculties  numbed  by  the 
awesomeness  of  this  miraculous  thing. 

"I've  won!"  Gordon  was  crying  in  exult- 


WHITHER  351 

ant  tones.  "That  beast  is  conquered  at 
last,  for  good  and  all!" 

He  strode  a  few  paces  up  the  room 
and  back,  and  his  figure  seemed  to  grow 
before  Henrietta's  very  eyes  in  his  exulta- 
tion over  his  victory.  As  he  turned  back 
his  gaze  fell  upon  the  terrified  girl  at 
whose  need  he  had  sprung,  with  mighty 
effort,  into  final,  lasting  dominance. 

"  Don't  be  frightened,"  he  said  gently, 
leaning  toward  her  with  outstretched,  re- 
assuring hand.  "You  called  me,  and  I 
came — came  to  help  you,  to  save  you, 
and  to  love  you.  You  have  nothing  to 
fear  now.  That  incarnate  baseness  has 
sunk  down,  down,  too  deep  for  resurrec- 
tion! He  shall  never  return!" 

"Hugh!  Hugh!"  she  quavered.  "What 
have  you  done  with  him?  Where  is  he?" 

Upon  Gordon's  exultant  countenance 
there  fell  a  shade  of  solemnity.  "I  know 
not,"  he  replied  in  awed  tones.  "What 
has  become  of  him  is  one  of  the  mysteries 
of  the  human  soul,  a  mystery  whose  begin- 
ning and  whose  growth  I  understand,  as 
you  shall  too,  but  whose  end  no  man  can 
explain.  The  man  whom  you  knew,  whom 


352     FATE  OF  FELIX  BRAND 

everyone  knew,  who  knew  himself,  as 
Felix  Brand,  is  no  more.  He  will  never 
exist  again. 

"Deliberately  that  man  chose  the  worse 
side  of  his  nature  and  cherished  it  and 
tried  to  ignore  and  cast  out  the  other, 
the  better  side.  But,  deep  down  within 
him,  that  other  side  lived  and  grew  strong, 
until  it  was  strong  enough  to  take  posses- 
sion of  his  body  and  cast  him  out.  He 
is  gone!"  Gordon's  voice  rose  again  into 
triumphal  tones.  "He  has  dropped  into 
an  oblivion  man's  thought  cannot  fathom 
nor  man's  brain  understand.  He  ordained 
his  own  destiny,  he  worked  out  his  own 
fate.  Let  him  have  the  end  that  he  him- 
self invited!" 

Gordon  ceased  speaking  and  leaned  to- 
ward Henrietta.  The  terror  had  left  her 
countenance  and  in  her  eyes  was  the 
dawning  of  renewed  trust  in  him. 

"Come,"  he  said,  "let  us  leave  this 
place,  with  all  of  its  wretched  memories." 

And  he  took  her  hand  and  led  her  forth. 

THE  END. 


A     000128045 


